VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Salon Refu ends its brief but amazing history as the only gallery in South Puget Sound to rival major galleries in major cities by offering a two-person show of works by Jean Nagai and Peter Scherrer. The gallery closes its doors at the end of this …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS One might think, if one pored through painter and gallery owner Susan Christian’s biography, that she’s the kind of creative being one might expect to have seen hanging out with Picasso and Hemingway at Gertrude Stein’s salons at the beginning of the 20th century, or later at gatherings of …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jean Nagai paints with acrylic and correction fluid on paper — that’s right, correction fluid, commonly known as whiteout, the stuff used to correct typing mistakes. Nagai first showed his work in Olympia at Salon Refu in December 2014. The paintings were intricate patterns made of thousands of white …
WEEKEND PREVIEW is your weekly guide to events in Thurston County. This week, we’re bringing you everything you need to know about debut author readings, hilarious plays and stunning art exhibits around Olympia. The only question is how you’ll pick from this week’s stellar lineup of events. Click here to listen to our podcast version …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Lucy Gentry Meltzer’s Biophilia Collection at Salon Refu is a selection of small voodoo dolls and sculptural figures on dress mannequins, standing on the floor and floating from a natural wood frame just below the gallery ceiling. Figuratively, they’re wood sprites, fairies, medieval warriors and goddesses, …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Artist and costume designer Lucy Gentry Meltzer is the next artist whose works will grace the interior of Salon Refu Galley. Described as couture or as sculptural dresses, Meltzer’s art is unlike anything commonly seen in galleries. People who frequent Salon Refu will recognize her as one of the …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Once again Susan Christian is showing her painted stick constructions at her own gallery, Salon Refu. The paintings are assemblages of various kinds of sticks, mostly lathe, which she puts together in rectangular shapes and paints as if they were stretched canvases. The last time I …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS I was warned ahead of time by Salon Refu owner Susan Christian that Dan Barron’s pop-up exhibition of “extraordinary” photos was going to be “exceedingly unnerving” and “incomprehensible.” With words like that, how could I not be intrigued? So I took myself down to Salon Refu, …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Olympia’s ever-surprising art gallery Salon Refu is instituting story time for the holiday season. Local poets, writers, storytellers and, as gallery owner Susan Christian puts it, “people of good will and excellent language skills” will read their work every Thursday through Sunday in December. During the month of December …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The exhibition of drawings and paintings by Kathy Gore Fuss at Salon Refu offers proof positive that practice makes perfect. When she started plein air painting in the dense forests in and around Olympia, then later at the gritty, industrial Port of Olympia, she found her …