Tacoma Light Trail, December 31 through January 12, brings much-needed illumination to the dark winter streets of Tacoma. The Light Trail will line the streets of Tacoma with light art installations, and the entire free event will be blessed by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. Food trucks will be on hand to make this a perfect family-friendly way to ring in the new year.
The current Childhood’s End Gallery show, up through December 23, is visually impressive and stimulating and yet simultaneously very relaxing to be with, demonstrating the versatility, and diversity of paper. The variety of styles and skills of the artists are cohesively unified by their shared love of the material.
Knowing that art is a powerful language, OLY ARTS spoke with some local Olympia area artists on how they feel compelled to respond to the recent election. There will be much discussion, both words and in artworks. This is part one of a series “The Art of Resistance” which will feature the work of local artists.
The question was posed to Native artists, “How can we lovingly honor our ancestors, heal generational traumas, and preserve culture in the modern world?” Their many responses varied, vibrant and intriguing responses can be seen in this art exhibition at SPSCC’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts through Dec. 13.
The Art of Salish Peoples, showcasing Coastal and Interior Salish People’s art, is a group exhibition until Jan 10, 2025, curated by the staff of The House of Welcome at The Evergreen State College. It is an all-Salish project, with lead artist Ed Archie NoiseCat and invited artists at Evergreen Gallery.
In Rex & Rose, a new coffee shop located in the beautiful and historic Security Building on 4th Avenue, you will see the works of two of the most prolific artists Olympia has to offer, Alec and Gabi Clayton. The art there until the end of October was chosen by co-owner Jay Michael Becker who curates the shows. This is the first time the Claytons have shown together other than in their home, and it is engaging to see how the two bodies of work interact with each other in such a beautiful setting.
by Molly Gilmore — There’s a glow at the center of Eileen Bochsler’s encaustic painting Forest Awakening, made with layers upon layers of wax mixed with tree resin that give the painting its luminosity and texture featured on the cover of the fall Arts Walk map. Awakening will be on display at Splash Gallery — a cooperative where Bochsler’s encaustics are always hanging.
by Anna Schlecht — A new mural has expanded the landscape of downtown Olympia. Ravens Chasing the Moon. Far more than a mural, this artwork adds to the cultural lexicon of artistic storytelling in the heart of our community. Cowlitz tribal artist Sarah Folden worked with Chehalis tribal artist Jenee Redecker-Burnett to paint this iconic image in the contemporary Coast Salish tradition.
MOSAIC: Tacoma’s Arts and Culture Festival at Tacoma’s Wright Park on July 27 and 28 is a weekend of multicultural music, dance, art, crafts, and cuisine, with an evening movie in the park and a Kids Zone and sprayground. The festival will see a visit from the Mobile Teaching Kitchen, which will provide a preview of culinary courses available through Metro Parks Tacoma.
Artist Austin Davis said, “It was really exciting to be asked to restore this amazing artwork. Having grown up nearby, I’ve seen this mural for years. I had my high school senior portrait taken in front of this mural. And now I have the honor of restoring it and working side by side with Joe [Tougas], who first painted this mural.”
There’s been lots of buzz around Susan Christian’s participation as curator of South Puget Sound Community College’s 2024 Southwest Regional Juried Exhibition which runs July 8-Aug. 16. The show includes 39 works by 32 artists from Southwest Washington. Awards will be presented along with a gallery talk by Christian at the opening reception on Thursday, July 11.
You can read the articles that are in OLY ARTS Summer 2024 Print Edition from links on this page, and you can read and download the PDF version linked in the website’s sidebar.
The theme of the latest exhibition at the Goldberg Building windows in downtown Olympia is a celebration of our local community featuring works by China Star, Kelly Watson, Daisy Curley and Aaron Zonka. It is beautifully executed and displayed in a variety of styles and media. It will be on view now through the month of July in the windows at Fourth Avenue and Capital Way.
by Dave R. Davison Soft Power, an exhibition of textile art now running at Tacoma Art Museum opened October 14, 2023 and runs through September 1, 2024 and offers an expansive, colorful and provocative experience. Had we world enough and time, a person could no doubt write a whole book exploring the many facets of …
Travis Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist, a prolific painter, sculptor, ceramicist, knowledgeable curator, and he has a deeply moving voice which will touch your soul when you hear it. Johnson is a man with an easy smile and a friendly demeanor. Anything he sets his mind to, he follows through purposefully and unflinchingly; he is extremely serious about his art and art mentoring practices and if you spend time appreciating his many talents and disciplines, you’ll notice there is a strong common thread that runs through them.
The South Sound Studio Tours in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater offer unique opportunities to visit, watch and learn from South Sound artists who invite the public into their studios in commercial buildings and in their homes to view artworks (some for sale and some not), talk to the artists, watch them work and learn about equipment, materials and methods. There will be demonstrations and direct sales by artists.
“It’s an eclectic mix,” said Sean Barnes, the director and coordinator of the college’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery about the SPSCC Juror’s Invitational, open through April 26. “It’s fun to go into shows where you have this eclectic work — to appreciate how that much diversity can exist in a single space.”
“I remember the crisis one day.” Sculptor Don Freas, already a well-respected craftsman who’d shown his furniture in galleries, said. “I said, ‘No, I can’t make a chair. I want to do something new.’ And it became a sculpture.” This retrospective at Childhood’s End Gallery in Olympia through April 21 is a meditation on Freas’ creative process.
Medical clinics can feel sterile and unwelcoming, so the idea of the art installation at the new MultiCare Women’s Center on McPhee Road is to populate the facility with the works of local female artists to inspire and comfort those who visit the clinic. The art is not open to the public but is there for the benefit of the center’s clients and to honor local artists.
An immersive art exhibit, “Imagine Monet,” featuring giant projections of more than 200 paintings of Claude Monet is running at the Tacoma Armory through April 14. At “Imagine Monet”, you find yourself standing in a space surrounded on all sides by a panoply of color. The work of the iconic French impressionist is blasted onto the walls all around; on the floor even.
The pictures in Unnatural Selections, animal portraits, by Erik Fremstad of Olympia on view beginning Feb. 16 at Lakewold Gardens in Lakewood, are each made up of thousands of words — and these words count. Selections are detailed, realistic depictions of iconic North American species done in pen and ink and watercolor.
The Gallery at Tacoma Community College is hosting its second annual Black Artists’ Exhibition in celebration of Black History Month with a lavish display of painting, drawing, photography, glass and digital art. Twenty-two South Sound artists are represented, and there are more than 40 pieces of art in the gallery.
Frisky bunnies, owls, and other animals play amongst happy Valentine hearts inscribed with “True Love,” “Be Mine,” “I’m Yours,” and “Love Oly” on Jill Carter’s projected mural on the empty Goldberg Building in downtown Olympia.
The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at The Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College features 13th edition of their annual creative postcard show.
“Light Up the Night—Winter Wonders,” an Art in Storefronts exhibit produced by Olympia Artspace Alliance is on view through March 31, 2024 in the windows of The Goldberg Building on Capitol Way S in Olympia. It features artwork by students from four area schools.
Honoring the Legacy of Hazel Pete at SPSCC’s 2023 Native American Art Exhibition through Dec. 8th including baskets, mats, clothing and dolls from the 1800s through the present day.
The work of artist Jennifer West, graduate of The Evergreen State College, often extends beyond the bounds of genre, combining elements of fine art, performance and media. Showing at TESC’s Gallery Photoland through Dec. 15.
“Another thing I think is different and nice about this event is that it’s not just visual artists,” Daniel Garcia continues. “In some cases, we have literary artists, we have poets, we have dancers, so we’re really trying to find that whole realm of artistry and bring it through to Arts at the Armory.”
Maureen Bridget Murphy’s artwork, exhibited at Schwartz’s Bakery in Olympia through November, is diverse and many times layered, spanning the spectrum of color and form.
Surh O’Connell’s rich and detailed watercolors at The Gallery at Tacoma Community College are like the artist herself, elegant and refined with an inner complexity, wisdom, and intellect. They show a rare and quiet dedication and stamina which reflects all aspects of Surh O’Connell’s life.
Atop each of the 27 pilings in Toten Inlet is a Boucante figure, bodies mostly made of weathered wood, heads and faces of sculpted stone, distinctively dressed in all manner of antiquated machine and engine parts and salvaged odds and ends. The faces are wide-eyed and staring, the mouths open, the effect inscrutable or spooky, depending on the direction of the light.
Thurston County Museum of Fine Art is reinventing itself this year as Coast Salish Museum of Fine Art, creating a platform for native people’s art. OLY ARTS spoke to Griffin Quinn (they/them) about how this came about.
by Molly Walsh Each year, Fall Arts Walk lights up Olympia’s downtown corridors, drawing thousands of people to shops, street attractions and to organizations that call downtown Olympia home. And amongst displays of paintings, music and theater performances, the exhibition from Community Print is slated to include more introspective themes, reflecting on local history, while …
by Lynette Charters Serembe Sandra Bocas has traveled extensively and lived in many different parts of the world from her country of birth, Venezuela, to Trinidad, where she moved to at the age of five and where her family lives. She went to boarding school in Wales in the UK, moved to and worked in …
by Molly Gilmore Spring Arts Walk cover artist Jennifer Kuhns has been there before — and she’s come a long way. Kuhns, well known for her glass mosaics, first had her work on the cover of the Arts Walk map back in spring 2007. This fall, she’s done it again with Olympia Reflections, an intricately …
by Molly Walsh Described as a “response to the concept of intimate conversation,” CaTMA (Contemporary and Transmodern Arts) Gallery’s group exhibition, Pillow Talk, will explore this theme not only through paintings on display, but also through elements of mystery that shroud the creative process. And few in the public will know all that is contained …
by Lynette Charters Serembe Mikaela Shafer is our OLY ARTS cover artist. Her beautiful and meaningful artworks will be showing recent and past works at Dog Bog Studios with her studio companions Daniel Overstreet and David Overstreet, also other Knitting Mills artists J. Hukee, Evan Clayton Horback and the ACE program artists, and guest artists …
by Alec Clayton Fall is a time for rebirth, for rejuvenation, especially when coming in the wake of a scorching dry summer and a pandemic that refuses to go away. Children return to school, and there will be football — Friday Night Lights at area high schools and U-Dub and Seahawks on the telly. Fall …
Artist Janice Arnold’s “Homage to Water” ~ a blue-and-white river of handmade felt swirling and eddying through a rock garden ~ is on view through September 30th along the atrium of Washington State Department of Ecology’s headquarters in Lacey.
This year’s winner of the Percival Plinth Project in Olympia, “A Song for Nurturing Peace” by Nancy Thorne-Chambers, is a bronze statue of a girl holding a bird’s nest with an egg in one hand while the mother bird, a white dove, perches on her other hand.
The SPSCC 2023 art faculty and staff exhibition is beautiful, well executed, well presented, and thought-provoking with a variety of disciplines on display. Being created by educators, the show has underlying messages. Open through September.
Elisa Del Giudice said of the mural project she created, “I brought in elements from the Procession of the Species — a jellyfish and a mushroom that mirror each other. The procession is a beacon of hope, and it’s celebratory, and it’s just so Olympia.”
Rene Westbrook engages the viewer as a visual oracle of creative ideas that can stimulate the senses and become the vehicle for hidden mysteries she wants to explore. Painting, collage, sculpture, and photography work as a catalyst for her latest direction of inquiry, digital compilations.
Tom Fath says when he finishes a painting it gives him moments of clarity and a sense of being on the right path, creating good from chaos. Much like his life’s journey, his art explores fears and doubts while celebrating what life has to offer.
ACE matched Avanti High School seniors with professional artists for a ten-week apprenticeship. Working within a “collaborative apprenticeship model,” students had the opportunity to witness the artistic process firsthand, practice their craft and learn how creative careers fit into Olympia’s economy.
Their works have elements in common, the most recognizable being that they are all monochrome. Gentry’s work is more playful and rhythmic, while Figel’s work is darker with more tension.
“We’re testing out the building — learning about how the acoustics work and how important sinks are for workshops,” said Angel Nava of the city’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Department. “People are so excited for the art interventions, to be engaged in creative projects as a community and to see this wonderful space being used and developed,” Jennifer Kuhns said.
“We are a community college gallery, and he is a deep part of our community,” said Sean Barnes, the gallery manager — and no relation. “Nathan is an accomplished artist and a wonderful curator, but also, how many opportunities do you have to invite someone back to curate an exhibition in the space where they used to work?”
Thurston County Museum of Fine Art’s mission “is to increase the number of free and accessible art shows/art spaces in the Thurston County area. By doing so we hope to enrich the lived experiences of individuals in our community through the appreciation of art, as well as to provide new spaces and opportunities for local artists to show their work.”
This Old World at Childhood’s End through June 11 “is a show made by artists who have lived a full life, it is eloquent, and expertly executed but is also experimental.”
Olympia Arts Walk is a great way to get out and see what’s going on in our vibrant city. This article highlights three places that exemplify what makes Olympia a great place to be an artist or art lover.
For Arts Walk, Olympia’s oldest and newest galleries are hosting curated exhibitions that bring together artworks with intention. The shows, at venerable Childhood’s End and tiny upstart CaTMA, aim not just to display art but also to become art.
Arts Walk is back! Covid never completely defeated Olympia’s Arts Walk, but this year it returns, full-blown — Arts Walk number 66. Artists and art lovers will swarm downtown Olympia, and shops, restaurants and businesses of all types will host artists and entertainers April 28-29.
Juror Erin Dengerink invited seven outstanding artists to submit works for this year’s SPSCC Juror’s Invitational Exhibition. They are Cebron Kyle Bradford, Jennifer Lauer, Becky Frehse, Becky Knold, Sandra Bocas, Allyson Essen, and Charles F. Pitz.
Black Art & Black Artists Exhibition – featuring 14 artists from our region, the exhibition showcases works across mediums, exploring themes like historical education, healing and representation. It explores themes of Black culture, identity and society. At Tacoma Community College’s gallery through March 17, 2023.
“Winter—Under the Salish Sea,” a project of Olympia Artspace Alliance in partnership with Art in Olympia Storefronts, Artists on Board, and through other collaborations and the City of Olympia, will brighten our winter days as we slowly swim toward the bright sun of spring and summer and will remain in place in downtown Olympia’s Goldberg Building windows through January and February. https://olyarts.org/2023/01/06/salish-sea-art-sparkles-in-the-goldberg-building/
“A story about redemption is fundamentally a story about hope,” director Aaron Lamb says. “And forgiveness. May you too find ghosts that change you for the better this holiday season.” Lobby art by Becky Knold.
Celebrated and award-winning local sculptor Irene Osborn showing with internationally renowned contemporary bojagi artist Leonie Castelino at Pacific NW Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum in La Connor.
Historical and modern garments, blankets and other woven artwork from Coast Salish communities are on view in “A Weaver’s Voice at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College.
Art galleries, bars, restaurants, shops, performance spaces — more than 80 downtown venues will be aswarm with excitement as artists young and old, amateur and professional, bring downtown Olympia to vibrant life for two evenings in early October. It’s been happening twice a year since 1990, when the first-annual spring and fall Arts Walks kicked off. In addition to visual art, there will be street performances, a busking zone and food trucks.
by Alec Clayton The latest artexhibition at Browsers Bookshop is DIALOGIC: Works on Paper by Evan Horback and Cecily Schmidt. Accordintg to the Oxford English Dictionary, “dialogic” means “relating to or in the form of dialogue.” That discribes this show in many ways. There are dialogues between the two artists and between the elments within individual works …
By Molly Gilmore Debra Van Tuinen has received many accolades for her paintings, which were included in the 2004 Florence Biennale and have hung in U.S. embassies, but her latest award recognizes not her art but her courage and her commitment to Olympia. Van Tuinen — who opened a downtown studio and gallery in August …
By Alec Clayton A sense of joy washes over viewers as they enter the Southwest Washington Regional Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery. Brightly colored paintings on suspended panels over the highly reflective black floors intensify the beauty of the space. Mostly paintings and a few sculptures in a …
The rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with text by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, started as a performance in drag clubs and became an international phenomenon. It’s now playing at the State Theater of Olympia’s Harlequin Productions, starring Adam Rennie as Hedwig and Mandy Rose Nichøls as Hedwig’s husband and assistant, Yitzhak.
As summer creeps in and as we begin to see hope for an end to the COVID pandemic, Childhood’s End Gallery celebrates rejuvenation with an exhibition called “Bloom.” It features flowers, flowers and more flowers by local artists, plus paintings, etchings, sculptures and a cascading curtain of living flowers by Olympia artist Kathy Gore Fuss.
By Alec Clayton Every year South Puget Sound Community College presents a juried exhibition of works by southwestern Washington artists, and every year an art professional selects a small group of artists from that show to be included in the Juror’s Invitational. The juror for this year’s invitational was sculptor Aisha Harrison, and the artists …
By Molly Walsh At 5 a.m. Eastern European Time, Olympia resident Hanna Ilchenko turned on the news. She couldn’t believe the events unfolding onscreen: Russia had launched a full-scale invasion on her home country of Ukraine. Initially, Ilchenko said the reports emerging of explosions and invading forces were difficult to process. “I couldn’t believe in …
The artistry of Vincent Van Gogh is on moving display at Tacoma Armory thanks to Imagine Van Gogh, a traveling exhibition co-designed by Julien Baron and Annabelle Mauger.
Five experienced artists have been asked to mentor younger artists and exhibit their own work alongside works by the artists they’ve mentored. The resulting exhibition, Black Love, is currently on display at SPSCC’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery.
By Alec Clayton There’s a new, big-little art exhibit in a tiny coffee shop. It’s Evan Horback and Jimmy Ulvenes at Bar Francis. Local art lovers will remember Horback from his big gorgeous show at Salon Refu (Now LGM Studio) almost a decade ago. Not long after, he moved away from Olympia, but now he’s …
By Alec Clayton The annual postcard show at South Puget Sound Community College is arguably one of the most popular art shows in the South Sound. It’s popular probably because it attracts so many artists working in so many styles and media. The current iteration includes more than 130 works. The criteria for inclusion is the …
By Alec Clayton For half a century, Childhood’s End Gallery has been Olympia’s paramount art gallery. Bill and Richenda Richardson opened the gallery and gift shop in 1971. Since then, they’ve introduced many of the region’s best painters, sculptors and craftspersons to our town. Today, they continue to display works, not only by outstanding local …
by Alec Clayton Tom Anderson is an iconic presence on Olympia’s art scene. The Park of the Seven Oaks by the roundabout on Harrison Avenue — That’s a Tom Anderson creation. The large, metal art pieces that fill the walls in the emergency room and chapel at Providence St. Peter Hospital — Those are also …
By Molly Gilmore Arts Walk, Olympia’s twice-yearly celebration of community and creativity, is back to something like the event South Sound remembers, with a street closure at the center of the action. Washington Street between Fifth Avenue and Legion Way will be closed from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, to create space for …
by Alec Clayton This year’s annual faculty and staff exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College is an eclectic mix of drawing, painting, sculpture and hybrids of those. It is work that is conceptually complex while maintaining aesthetic joy by artists who are more than talented — They are intelligent and in touch with the …
By Alec Clayton OLY ARTS readers and art lovers throughout the Olympia area will remember Kathy Gore Fuss’s floral installation “A Place to Mourn.” Beginning Sept. 6, Gore Fuss will have another floral installation in place entitled “A Place to Reflect.” As with her first such installation, this one will be a place of beauty, …
By Alec Clayton “Compliments” at Childhood’s End Gallery is an exhibition of pairs — couples who both complement and compliment one another. It is a show of paintings and ceramics by artists who either live together or work together and whose artworks look well together. The couples are painters Christopher Mathie and Chuck Gumpert, ceramicists John …
By Alec Clayton Art lovers from Olympia to Portland to Seattle should travel to Tacoma Art Museum and see an historically important and one-of-a-kind collection of African American art and historic artifacts in The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection. The collection fills two of the Museum’s galleries, including more than 150 objects including …
By Alec Clayton Guest juror Aisha Harrison chose a wide variety of art for the 2021 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College: paintings, sculpture, textiles in many styles and wide-ranging content. It is great to see this show returning for in-person viewing, albeit at 50 percent capacity. Indicative of the eclectic …
By Alec Clayton Artist Dave Sederberg who lit up the night for Winter Solstice with the astounding “Glowhenge” project is now at work with a group of local artists on an eight-week street-art project for the LoveOly Summerfest scheduled for eight Saturdays in July and August in downtown Olympia. Sederberg has pulled together a team …
By Alec Clayton At a private residence in her Northeast Olympia neighborhood, artist Kathy Gore Fuss has transformed a carved stone into a memorial or place of worship, or “A Place to Mourn,” which she sees as a starting point for a series of floral memorials. “I have been thinking about this project ever since …
By Molly Gilmore A lifelong delight in art and a deep commitment to feminism have shaped of Lynette Charters’ way of seeing the world. Among the most recent recognitions of the Olympia painter’s talent: Two of her paintings will be included in Together, a national exhibition opening May 7 in Woodstock, Illinois. And she’s now …
By Alec Clayton Each year, award winners from South Puget Sound Community College’s juried exhibition are featured in the Juror’s Invitational. This year’s invited artists comprise a quartet of contrasting but equally excellent artists selected by juror June Sekiguchi. They are painters Marilyn Bedford and Hart James, sculptor Ron Hinton, and photographer John Korvell. Bedford …
By Alec Clayton This year’s Spring Arts Month cover art will be “Fluttering,” a hand-painted relief block by Laurel Henn, depicting quilts on a clothesline. The artist says this image is dear to her because of her mother’s life-long work as a quilter. “Quilts are a source of comfort and a symbol of family heirlooms,” …
By Alec Clayton Coming to Olympia from New York and England by way of Hollywood, John Serembe and Lynette Charters Serembe have built a life that is wrapped up in art and family and community. John is an actor and a graphic artist, greatly admired for his performances with Harlequin Productions, Theater Artists Olympia, Animal …
By Molly Gilmore Although it’s a large space with big windows, The Artists’ Gallery in west Olympia is easy to overlook. It’s at the mall, but not in the mall, nestled in between Italia Pizzeria and Massage Envy in the Capital Mall Promenade. And over the past year, the cooperative gallery — featuring a wide …
by Alec Clayton Despite the horrors depicted in her latest artworks — devastating fires, a murderous pandemic and the final year of the Trump administration — there is hope and sweetness, irony and humor in Marilyn Frasca’s art. She and four other local artists were asked to show works created over the past year in …
By Molly Gilmore Remember when Arts Walk, Olympia’s twice-yearly celebration of creations and community, filled the downtown shops and streets with performances, paintings and people? For the second year in a row, Arts Walk as it used to be is on hold. Even with the state poised to enter Phase 3 of the recovery plan, …
By Alec Clayton “It’s fabulous to be Black – celebrate it. It’s fabulous to be any color under the sun – again celebrate it. That’s what brings back dignity to each human being.” This was written by artist Sandra Bocas for the occasion of her inclusion of the exhibition “Closer” at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College. …
By Alec Clayton On the night after winter solstice when our days were the shortest and our nights the darkest, nine glowing monoliths in florescent colors appeared on the grassy mound beside the lake at Heritage Park and lit up the blackness of night with the lighted dome of the State Capitol in the background. …
By Aigner Loren Wilson Recently, local artist Nancy Thorne-Chambers won the 2020 Peoples’ Prize Winner for the Percival Plinth Project for her work Girl Reading in a Story Place. Oly Arts hosted an interview with the artist about the sculpture and recent win. This article is a highlight of the interview and showcase for the …
By Abigail Mandlin In these times of shut-downs and lockdowns, quarantine and isolation, we need art now more than ever to sustain us, to keep us sane. Robin Williams said it best when playing beloved high school English teacher John Keating in Dead Poets Society: “Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain …
By Alec Clayton The “pARTners” exhibition at Childhood’s End Gallery showcases works by three artist couples who live and work together: papercut artist Nikki McClure and her partner, fine woodworker Jay T Scott; steel and ceramic sculptors Robin and John Gumaelious; and mixed-media painters Chuck Gumpert and Christopher Mathie. The show includes both collaborative and …
By Molly Gilmore Literary walks, a livestreamed concert and a show of work by Black artists are among the winners of Olympia’s Arts Month Innovation awards. The city began giving the awards last year to honor projects that stood out in their efforts to encourage community connection and involvement with the arts. “We wanted to …
By Alec Clayton In the South Sound as in the country at large, black artists are poorly represented. The “Futures Rising” exhibition, at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery inside South Puget Sound Community College’s Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts, proves that there are many more excellent black artists in the area than is …
By Alec Clayton Aisha Harrison is an inventive sculptor and former art teacher at The Evergreen State College. She also does two-dimensional art, drawing and printmaking, but it is as a sculptor of strong and emphatic figures that has made an indelible mark on the South Sound art world. “Aisha contributes so much to our …
Tacoma Light Trail, December 31 through January 12, brings much-needed illumination to the dark winter streets of Tacoma. The Light Trail will line the streets of Tacoma with light art installations, and the entire free event will be blessed by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. Food trucks will be on hand to make this a perfect family-friendly way to ring in the new year.
The current Childhood’s End Gallery show, up through December 23, is visually impressive and stimulating and yet simultaneously very relaxing to be with, demonstrating the versatility, and diversity of paper. The variety of styles and skills of the artists are cohesively unified by their shared love of the material.
Knowing that art is a powerful language, OLY ARTS spoke with some local Olympia area artists on how they feel compelled to respond to the recent election. There will be much discussion, both words and in artworks. This is part one of a series “The Art of Resistance” which will feature the work of local artists.
The question was posed to Native artists, “How can we lovingly honor our ancestors, heal generational traumas, and preserve culture in the modern world?” Their many responses varied, vibrant and intriguing responses can be seen in this art exhibition at SPSCC’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts through Dec. 13.
The Art of Salish Peoples, showcasing Coastal and Interior Salish People’s art, is a group exhibition until Jan 10, 2025, curated by the staff of The House of Welcome at The Evergreen State College. It is an all-Salish project, with lead artist Ed Archie NoiseCat and invited artists at Evergreen Gallery.
In Rex & Rose, a new coffee shop located in the beautiful and historic Security Building on 4th Avenue, you will see the works of two of the most prolific artists Olympia has to offer, Alec and Gabi Clayton. The art there until the end of October was chosen by co-owner Jay Michael Becker who curates the shows. This is the first time the Claytons have shown together other than in their home, and it is engaging to see how the two bodies of work interact with each other in such a beautiful setting.
by Molly Gilmore — There’s a glow at the center of Eileen Bochsler’s encaustic painting Forest Awakening, made with layers upon layers of wax mixed with tree resin that give the painting its luminosity and texture featured on the cover of the fall Arts Walk map. Awakening will be on display at Splash Gallery — a cooperative where Bochsler’s encaustics are always hanging.
by Anna Schlecht — A new mural has expanded the landscape of downtown Olympia. Ravens Chasing the Moon. Far more than a mural, this artwork adds to the cultural lexicon of artistic storytelling in the heart of our community. Cowlitz tribal artist Sarah Folden worked with Chehalis tribal artist Jenee Redecker-Burnett to paint this iconic image in the contemporary Coast Salish tradition.
MOSAIC: Tacoma’s Arts and Culture Festival at Tacoma’s Wright Park on July 27 and 28 is a weekend of multicultural music, dance, art, crafts, and cuisine, with an evening movie in the park and a Kids Zone and sprayground. The festival will see a visit from the Mobile Teaching Kitchen, which will provide a preview of culinary courses available through Metro Parks Tacoma.
Artist Austin Davis said, “It was really exciting to be asked to restore this amazing artwork. Having grown up nearby, I’ve seen this mural for years. I had my high school senior portrait taken in front of this mural. And now I have the honor of restoring it and working side by side with Joe [Tougas], who first painted this mural.”
There’s been lots of buzz around Susan Christian’s participation as curator of South Puget Sound Community College’s 2024 Southwest Regional Juried Exhibition which runs July 8-Aug. 16. The show includes 39 works by 32 artists from Southwest Washington. Awards will be presented along with a gallery talk by Christian at the opening reception on Thursday, July 11.
You can read the articles that are in OLY ARTS Summer 2024 Print Edition from links on this page, and you can read and download the PDF version linked in the website’s sidebar.
The theme of the latest exhibition at the Goldberg Building windows in downtown Olympia is a celebration of our local community featuring works by China Star, Kelly Watson, Daisy Curley and Aaron Zonka. It is beautifully executed and displayed in a variety of styles and media. It will be on view now through the month of July in the windows at Fourth Avenue and Capital Way.
by Dave R. Davison Soft Power, an exhibition of textile art now running at Tacoma Art Museum opened October 14, 2023 and runs through September 1, 2024 and offers an expansive, colorful and provocative experience. Had we world enough and time, a person could no doubt write a whole book exploring the many facets of …
“It’s an eclectic mix,” said Sean Barnes, the director and coordinator of the college’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery about the SPSCC Juror’s Invitational, open through April 26. “It’s fun to go into shows where you have this eclectic work — to appreciate how that much diversity can exist in a single space.”
“I remember the crisis one day.” Sculptor Don Freas, already a well-respected craftsman who’d shown his furniture in galleries, said. “I said, ‘No, I can’t make a chair. I want to do something new.’ And it became a sculpture.” This retrospective at Childhood’s End Gallery in Olympia through April 21 is a meditation on Freas’ creative process.
Medical clinics can feel sterile and unwelcoming, so the idea of the art installation at the new MultiCare Women’s Center on McPhee Road is to populate the facility with the works of local female artists to inspire and comfort those who visit the clinic. The art is not open to the public but is there for the benefit of the center’s clients and to honor local artists.
An immersive art exhibit, “Imagine Monet,” featuring giant projections of more than 200 paintings of Claude Monet is running at the Tacoma Armory through April 14. At “Imagine Monet”, you find yourself standing in a space surrounded on all sides by a panoply of color. The work of the iconic French impressionist is blasted onto the walls all around; on the floor even.
The pictures in Unnatural Selections, animal portraits, by Erik Fremstad of Olympia on view beginning Feb. 16 at Lakewold Gardens in Lakewood, are each made up of thousands of words — and these words count. Selections are detailed, realistic depictions of iconic North American species done in pen and ink and watercolor.
The Gallery at Tacoma Community College is hosting its second annual Black Artists’ Exhibition in celebration of Black History Month with a lavish display of painting, drawing, photography, glass and digital art. Twenty-two South Sound artists are represented, and there are more than 40 pieces of art in the gallery.
Frisky bunnies, owls, and other animals play amongst happy Valentine hearts inscribed with “True Love,” “Be Mine,” “I’m Yours,” and “Love Oly” on Jill Carter’s projected mural on the empty Goldberg Building in downtown Olympia.
The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at The Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College features 13th edition of their annual creative postcard show.
“Light Up the Night—Winter Wonders,” an Art in Storefronts exhibit produced by Olympia Artspace Alliance is on view through March 31, 2024 in the windows of The Goldberg Building on Capitol Way S in Olympia. It features artwork by students from four area schools.
Honoring the Legacy of Hazel Pete at SPSCC’s 2023 Native American Art Exhibition through Dec. 8th including baskets, mats, clothing and dolls from the 1800s through the present day.
The work of artist Jennifer West, graduate of The Evergreen State College, often extends beyond the bounds of genre, combining elements of fine art, performance and media. Showing at TESC’s Gallery Photoland through Dec. 15.
“Another thing I think is different and nice about this event is that it’s not just visual artists,” Daniel Garcia continues. “In some cases, we have literary artists, we have poets, we have dancers, so we’re really trying to find that whole realm of artistry and bring it through to Arts at the Armory.”
Maureen Bridget Murphy’s artwork, exhibited at Schwartz’s Bakery in Olympia through November, is diverse and many times layered, spanning the spectrum of color and form.
Surh O’Connell’s rich and detailed watercolors at The Gallery at Tacoma Community College are like the artist herself, elegant and refined with an inner complexity, wisdom, and intellect. They show a rare and quiet dedication and stamina which reflects all aspects of Surh O’Connell’s life.
Atop each of the 27 pilings in Toten Inlet is a Boucante figure, bodies mostly made of weathered wood, heads and faces of sculpted stone, distinctively dressed in all manner of antiquated machine and engine parts and salvaged odds and ends. The faces are wide-eyed and staring, the mouths open, the effect inscrutable or spooky, depending on the direction of the light.
Thurston County Museum of Fine Art is reinventing itself this year as Coast Salish Museum of Fine Art, creating a platform for native people’s art. OLY ARTS spoke to Griffin Quinn (they/them) about how this came about.
Artist Janice Arnold’s “Homage to Water” ~ a blue-and-white river of handmade felt swirling and eddying through a rock garden ~ is on view through September 30th along the atrium of Washington State Department of Ecology’s headquarters in Lacey.
This year’s winner of the Percival Plinth Project in Olympia, “A Song for Nurturing Peace” by Nancy Thorne-Chambers, is a bronze statue of a girl holding a bird’s nest with an egg in one hand while the mother bird, a white dove, perches on her other hand.
The SPSCC 2023 art faculty and staff exhibition is beautiful, well executed, well presented, and thought-provoking with a variety of disciplines on display. Being created by educators, the show has underlying messages. Open through September.
Elisa Del Giudice said of the mural project she created, “I brought in elements from the Procession of the Species — a jellyfish and a mushroom that mirror each other. The procession is a beacon of hope, and it’s celebratory, and it’s just so Olympia.”
Rene Westbrook engages the viewer as a visual oracle of creative ideas that can stimulate the senses and become the vehicle for hidden mysteries she wants to explore. Painting, collage, sculpture, and photography work as a catalyst for her latest direction of inquiry, digital compilations.
Tom Fath says when he finishes a painting it gives him moments of clarity and a sense of being on the right path, creating good from chaos. Much like his life’s journey, his art explores fears and doubts while celebrating what life has to offer.
ACE matched Avanti High School seniors with professional artists for a ten-week apprenticeship. Working within a “collaborative apprenticeship model,” students had the opportunity to witness the artistic process firsthand, practice their craft and learn how creative careers fit into Olympia’s economy.
Their works have elements in common, the most recognizable being that they are all monochrome. Gentry’s work is more playful and rhythmic, while Figel’s work is darker with more tension.
“We’re testing out the building — learning about how the acoustics work and how important sinks are for workshops,” said Angel Nava of the city’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Department. “People are so excited for the art interventions, to be engaged in creative projects as a community and to see this wonderful space being used and developed,” Jennifer Kuhns said.
“We are a community college gallery, and he is a deep part of our community,” said Sean Barnes, the gallery manager — and no relation. “Nathan is an accomplished artist and a wonderful curator, but also, how many opportunities do you have to invite someone back to curate an exhibition in the space where they used to work?”
Thurston County Museum of Fine Art’s mission “is to increase the number of free and accessible art shows/art spaces in the Thurston County area. By doing so we hope to enrich the lived experiences of individuals in our community through the appreciation of art, as well as to provide new spaces and opportunities for local artists to show their work.”
There’s so much happening at Lakewold Gardens this summer it’s well worth the drive.
This Old World at Childhood’s End through June 11 “is a show made by artists who have lived a full life, it is eloquent, and expertly executed but is also experimental.”
Indicative of the vast art and entertainment to be found at Arts Walk, check out the OlyFilm and OlyAct film demo where You’re the Star!
Olympia Arts Walk is a great way to get out and see what’s going on in our vibrant city. This article highlights three places that exemplify what makes Olympia a great place to be an artist or art lover.
For Arts Walk, Olympia’s oldest and newest galleries are hosting curated exhibitions that bring together artworks with intention. The shows, at venerable Childhood’s End and tiny upstart CaTMA, aim not just to display art but also to become art.
Arts Walk is back! Covid never completely defeated Olympia’s Arts Walk, but this year it returns, full-blown — Arts Walk number 66. Artists and art lovers will swarm downtown Olympia, and shops, restaurants and businesses of all types will host artists and entertainers April 28-29.
Juror Erin Dengerink invited seven outstanding artists to submit works for this year’s SPSCC Juror’s Invitational Exhibition. They are Cebron Kyle Bradford, Jennifer Lauer, Becky Frehse, Becky Knold, Sandra Bocas, Allyson Essen, and Charles F. Pitz.
Black Art & Black Artists Exhibition – featuring 14 artists from our region, the exhibition showcases works across mediums, exploring themes like historical education, healing and representation. It explores themes of Black culture, identity and society. At Tacoma Community College’s gallery through March 17, 2023.
“Winter—Under the Salish Sea,” a project of Olympia Artspace Alliance in partnership with Art in Olympia Storefronts, Artists on Board, and through other collaborations and the City of Olympia, will brighten our winter days as we slowly swim toward the bright sun of spring and summer and will remain in place in downtown Olympia’s Goldberg Building windows through January and February. https://olyarts.org/2023/01/06/salish-sea-art-sparkles-in-the-goldberg-building/
“A story about redemption is fundamentally a story about hope,” director Aaron Lamb says. “And forgiveness. May you too find ghosts that change you for the better this holiday season.” Lobby art by Becky Knold.
Celebrated and award-winning local sculptor Irene Osborn showing with internationally renowned contemporary bojagi artist Leonie Castelino at Pacific NW Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum in La Connor.
Historical and modern garments, blankets and other woven artwork from Coast Salish communities are on view in “A Weaver’s Voice at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College.
Olympia begins planning of city arts space.
Art galleries, bars, restaurants, shops, performance spaces — more than 80 downtown venues will be aswarm with excitement as artists young and old, amateur and professional, bring downtown Olympia to vibrant life for two evenings in early October. It’s been happening twice a year since 1990, when the first-annual spring and fall Arts Walks kicked off. In addition to visual art, there will be street performances, a busking zone and food trucks.
by Alec Clayton The latest artexhibition at Browsers Bookshop is DIALOGIC: Works on Paper by Evan Horback and Cecily Schmidt. Accordintg to the Oxford English Dictionary, “dialogic” means “relating to or in the form of dialogue.” That discribes this show in many ways. There are dialogues between the two artists and between the elments within individual works …
By Molly Gilmore Debra Van Tuinen has received many accolades for her paintings, which were included in the 2004 Florence Biennale and have hung in U.S. embassies, but her latest award recognizes not her art but her courage and her commitment to Olympia. Van Tuinen — who opened a downtown studio and gallery in August …
By Alec Clayton A sense of joy washes over viewers as they enter the Southwest Washington Regional Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery. Brightly colored paintings on suspended panels over the highly reflective black floors intensify the beauty of the space. Mostly paintings and a few sculptures in a …
The rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with text by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, started as a performance in drag clubs and became an international phenomenon. It’s now playing at the State Theater of Olympia’s Harlequin Productions, starring Adam Rennie as Hedwig and Mandy Rose Nichøls as Hedwig’s husband and assistant, Yitzhak.
As summer creeps in and as we begin to see hope for an end to the COVID pandemic, Childhood’s End Gallery celebrates rejuvenation with an exhibition called “Bloom.” It features flowers, flowers and more flowers by local artists, plus paintings, etchings, sculptures and a cascading curtain of living flowers by Olympia artist Kathy Gore Fuss.
By Alec Clayton Every year South Puget Sound Community College presents a juried exhibition of works by southwestern Washington artists, and every year an art professional selects a small group of artists from that show to be included in the Juror’s Invitational. The juror for this year’s invitational was sculptor Aisha Harrison, and the artists …
By Molly Walsh At 5 a.m. Eastern European Time, Olympia resident Hanna Ilchenko turned on the news. She couldn’t believe the events unfolding onscreen: Russia had launched a full-scale invasion on her home country of Ukraine. Initially, Ilchenko said the reports emerging of explosions and invading forces were difficult to process. “I couldn’t believe in …
Artist Becky Knold has released a series of paintings that, intentionally or not, were inspired by or reacted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The artistry of Vincent Van Gogh is on moving display at Tacoma Armory thanks to Imagine Van Gogh, a traveling exhibition co-designed by Julien Baron and Annabelle Mauger.
Five experienced artists have been asked to mentor younger artists and exhibit their own work alongside works by the artists they’ve mentored. The resulting exhibition, Black Love, is currently on display at SPSCC’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery.
By Alec Clayton There’s a new, big-little art exhibit in a tiny coffee shop. It’s Evan Horback and Jimmy Ulvenes at Bar Francis. Local art lovers will remember Horback from his big gorgeous show at Salon Refu (Now LGM Studio) almost a decade ago. Not long after, he moved away from Olympia, but now he’s …
By Alec Clayton The annual postcard show at South Puget Sound Community College is arguably one of the most popular art shows in the South Sound. It’s popular probably because it attracts so many artists working in so many styles and media. The current iteration includes more than 130 works. The criteria for inclusion is the …
By Alec Clayton For half a century, Childhood’s End Gallery has been Olympia’s paramount art gallery. Bill and Richenda Richardson opened the gallery and gift shop in 1971. Since then, they’ve introduced many of the region’s best painters, sculptors and craftspersons to our town. Today, they continue to display works, not only by outstanding local …
by Alec Clayton Tom Anderson is an iconic presence on Olympia’s art scene. The Park of the Seven Oaks by the roundabout on Harrison Avenue — That’s a Tom Anderson creation. The large, metal art pieces that fill the walls in the emergency room and chapel at Providence St. Peter Hospital — Those are also …
By Molly Gilmore Arts Walk, Olympia’s twice-yearly celebration of community and creativity, is back to something like the event South Sound remembers, with a street closure at the center of the action. Washington Street between Fifth Avenue and Legion Way will be closed from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, to create space for …
by Alec Clayton This year’s annual faculty and staff exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College is an eclectic mix of drawing, painting, sculpture and hybrids of those. It is work that is conceptually complex while maintaining aesthetic joy by artists who are more than talented — They are intelligent and in touch with the …
By Alec Clayton OLY ARTS readers and art lovers throughout the Olympia area will remember Kathy Gore Fuss’s floral installation “A Place to Mourn.” Beginning Sept. 6, Gore Fuss will have another floral installation in place entitled “A Place to Reflect.” As with her first such installation, this one will be a place of beauty, …
By Alec Clayton “Compliments” at Childhood’s End Gallery is an exhibition of pairs — couples who both complement and compliment one another. It is a show of paintings and ceramics by artists who either live together or work together and whose artworks look well together. The couples are painters Christopher Mathie and Chuck Gumpert, ceramicists John …
By Alec Clayton Art lovers from Olympia to Portland to Seattle should travel to Tacoma Art Museum and see an historically important and one-of-a-kind collection of African American art and historic artifacts in The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection. The collection fills two of the Museum’s galleries, including more than 150 objects including …
By Alec Clayton Guest juror Aisha Harrison chose a wide variety of art for the 2021 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College: paintings, sculpture, textiles in many styles and wide-ranging content. It is great to see this show returning for in-person viewing, albeit at 50 percent capacity. Indicative of the eclectic …
By Alec Clayton Artist Dave Sederberg who lit up the night for Winter Solstice with the astounding “Glowhenge” project is now at work with a group of local artists on an eight-week street-art project for the LoveOly Summerfest scheduled for eight Saturdays in July and August in downtown Olympia. Sederberg has pulled together a team …
By Alec Clayton At a private residence in her Northeast Olympia neighborhood, artist Kathy Gore Fuss has transformed a carved stone into a memorial or place of worship, or “A Place to Mourn,” which she sees as a starting point for a series of floral memorials. “I have been thinking about this project ever since …
By Molly Gilmore A lifelong delight in art and a deep commitment to feminism have shaped of Lynette Charters’ way of seeing the world. Among the most recent recognitions of the Olympia painter’s talent: Two of her paintings will be included in Together, a national exhibition opening May 7 in Woodstock, Illinois. And she’s now …
By Alec Clayton Each year, award winners from South Puget Sound Community College’s juried exhibition are featured in the Juror’s Invitational. This year’s invited artists comprise a quartet of contrasting but equally excellent artists selected by juror June Sekiguchi. They are painters Marilyn Bedford and Hart James, sculptor Ron Hinton, and photographer John Korvell. Bedford …
By Alec Clayton This year’s Spring Arts Month cover art will be “Fluttering,” a hand-painted relief block by Laurel Henn, depicting quilts on a clothesline. The artist says this image is dear to her because of her mother’s life-long work as a quilter. “Quilts are a source of comfort and a symbol of family heirlooms,” …
By Alec Clayton Coming to Olympia from New York and England by way of Hollywood, John Serembe and Lynette Charters Serembe have built a life that is wrapped up in art and family and community. John is an actor and a graphic artist, greatly admired for his performances with Harlequin Productions, Theater Artists Olympia, Animal …
By Molly Gilmore Although it’s a large space with big windows, The Artists’ Gallery in west Olympia is easy to overlook. It’s at the mall, but not in the mall, nestled in between Italia Pizzeria and Massage Envy in the Capital Mall Promenade. And over the past year, the cooperative gallery — featuring a wide …
by Alec Clayton Despite the horrors depicted in her latest artworks — devastating fires, a murderous pandemic and the final year of the Trump administration — there is hope and sweetness, irony and humor in Marilyn Frasca’s art. She and four other local artists were asked to show works created over the past year in …
By Molly Gilmore Remember when Arts Walk, Olympia’s twice-yearly celebration of creations and community, filled the downtown shops and streets with performances, paintings and people? For the second year in a row, Arts Walk as it used to be is on hold. Even with the state poised to enter Phase 3 of the recovery plan, …
By Alec Clayton “It’s fabulous to be Black – celebrate it. It’s fabulous to be any color under the sun – again celebrate it. That’s what brings back dignity to each human being.” This was written by artist Sandra Bocas for the occasion of her inclusion of the exhibition “Closer” at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College. …
By Alec Clayton On the night after winter solstice when our days were the shortest and our nights the darkest, nine glowing monoliths in florescent colors appeared on the grassy mound beside the lake at Heritage Park and lit up the blackness of night with the lighted dome of the State Capitol in the background. …
By Aigner Loren Wilson Recently, local artist Nancy Thorne-Chambers won the 2020 Peoples’ Prize Winner for the Percival Plinth Project for her work Girl Reading in a Story Place. Oly Arts hosted an interview with the artist about the sculpture and recent win. This article is a highlight of the interview and showcase for the …
By Abigail Mandlin In these times of shut-downs and lockdowns, quarantine and isolation, we need art now more than ever to sustain us, to keep us sane. Robin Williams said it best when playing beloved high school English teacher John Keating in Dead Poets Society: “Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain …
By Alec Clayton The “pARTners” exhibition at Childhood’s End Gallery showcases works by three artist couples who live and work together: papercut artist Nikki McClure and her partner, fine woodworker Jay T Scott; steel and ceramic sculptors Robin and John Gumaelious; and mixed-media painters Chuck Gumpert and Christopher Mathie. The show includes both collaborative and …
By Molly Gilmore Literary walks, a livestreamed concert and a show of work by Black artists are among the winners of Olympia’s Arts Month Innovation awards. The city began giving the awards last year to honor projects that stood out in their efforts to encourage community connection and involvement with the arts. “We wanted to …
By Alec Clayton In the South Sound as in the country at large, black artists are poorly represented. The “Futures Rising” exhibition, at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery inside South Puget Sound Community College’s Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts, proves that there are many more excellent black artists in the area than is …
By Alec Clayton Aisha Harrison is an inventive sculptor and former art teacher at The Evergreen State College. She also does two-dimensional art, drawing and printmaking, but it is as a sculptor of strong and emphatic figures that has made an indelible mark on the South Sound art world. “Aisha contributes so much to our …