September

The 2026 Recology King County AIR Program Exhibition

Through September 12
Recology King County

To wrap up its latest artist residencies, Recology King County presents the 2026 Recology King County AIR Program Exhibition, featuring fashion designer Janelle Abbott and photographer Eirik Johnson. Held at Mutuus Studio, the show is the culmination of a residency for King County artists that provides discarded materials, a stipend, and a workspace at Recology’s recycling facility.

Unwavering Hope

Through October 4
Columbia City Gallery

The biggest show of the year is open now. The gallery’s 18th annual juried exhibition, featuring nearly two-dozen artists, including Whitney Diggs, Jo Cosme, and Deirdre Herron, operates under the theme Unwavering Hope. This year’s jury was Avery Barnes of Avery Barnes Gallery and James Coley of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Here and Now

Through October 16
Gallery 4Culture

This show will display a selection of the more than 150 recently acquired works by regional artists for the King County Public Art Collection.

The Light She Carries by Jasmine Carson, currently showing at the Arte Noir exhibition Colored Girls for Colored Girls—Evolution of Expression.

Courtesy of Jasmine Carson

Colored Girls for Colored Girls—Evolution of Expression

Through November 15
Arte Noir

Currently showing at Arte Noir, Colored Girls for Colored Girls—Evolution of Expression is an exhibition presented as part of the gallery’s collaboration with the Ntozake Shange Trust, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Broadway production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Featuring women artists working in painting, collage, light, and gesture, the show uses the play’s central figures, a series of women in various colors, as a jumping-off point for looking at Black womanhood through lenses including identity, place, and memory.

Stitched

September 11–27
Base Camp Studios

In Belltown, there are galleries galore, but at Base Camp Studios, Stitched, showcasing all forms of textile art—clothing, tapestries, tablecloths, lace, fiber art, embroidery, knitwear—is hot on the radar.

Ascent

September 12–26
Roq La Rue Gallery

This show will feature work from beloved sculptor and jewelry designer Debra Baxter, known for combining intricate figurative sculptures with crystal details.

Project NW: David Hytone

September 17–January 03, 2027
Tacoma Art Museum

This is the latest installment in its Project NW series, featuring a new set of work by local mixed-media artist and painter David Hytone. A 2024 MacDowell Fellow, Hytone is known for his bold, oftentimes surreal pieces and interest in the various facets of the human experience such as memory perception.

WALKDONTRUN

September 19

Last year’s inaugural Walk, Don’t Run art marathon was a smash hit, with more than 5,000 attendees flooding downtown Seattle to experience hundreds of activations including pop-up dance performances, live music, poetry readings, installations, drag shows, and more. This year the event is back and bigger than ever, activating the city from Westlake Park to Occidental Square and kicking off Arts + Culture Week Seattle, a festival dedicated to local makers, creators, and arts institutions.

October

Here, 2025, Kelly Bjork. Giclee print. 16 x 20 inches at Gallery 4Culture.

Mario Gallucci / courtesy of Kelly Bjork

Kelly Bjork

October 1-28
J. Rinehart Gallery

This solo show features a new series of paintings by Pacific Northwest favorite, Kelly Bjork.

The Seeker & The Sought

October 1–mid-November
Antipode Art Gallery

The Seeker & The Sought is a solo show for Saina Heshmati, that follows the flower through every stage of life, from first bloom to the last petal fallen. Heshmati uses ink drawings on paper, cut and restitched onto fabric, to create striking floral moments.

Pratt Fine Arts Center @ 50

October 2–January 31, 2027
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

This year, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) participated in Handwork 2026, a nationwide celebration of American craft marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. As part of the programming, BIMA is hosting Pratt Fine Arts Center @ 50, an exhibition to mark the half-century anniversary of Seattle’s Pratt Fine Art Center. The facility is known for its affordable classes and studio space for artists working in media ranging from woodwork and felt-making to glass, stone, and sculpture. This show will feature work by former and current students, instructors, board members, and staff.

Daniel R. Smith’s work will be on display at Temporal: Stories of Indigenous Present, Re-imagining, Indigenous Futures at the Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts.

Courtesy of Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts

Coast Salish Museum of Fine Art: Temporal: Stories of Indigenous Present, Re-imagining Indigenous Futures

October 2–December 31
Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts

In Olympia, the annual Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts welcomes visitors to Temporal: Stories of Indigenous Present, Re-imagining Indigenous Futures, an exhibition at the Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts. Featuring a group of multi-generational artists (all are part of the Indigenous Creatives Collective) working in performance art, installation, digital and video art, and traditional art forms such as weaving and beadwork, the show is dedicated to celebrating Indigenous voices and introducing audiences to  Indigenous futurism.

Taut

October 8–November 15
Mini Mart City Park

Part of the Refract Seattle glass festival, Taut at Mini Mart City Park is a solo exhibition for Zoe Potter, a recent graduate in the fine arts program at Cornish College of the Arts. Here, Potter creates a series of figurative sculptures using glass, steel, and latex, exploring the tension between the materials and how it changes with shape and scale.

dance apron, 2025, Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos). Acrylic, graphite, color pencil, Xerox transfer on panel boards.

Courtesy of Sara Siestreem

My Body is a Basket

October 24–April 11, 2027
Frye Art Museum 

My Body is a Basket puts the work of three Indigenous Northwest artists—Brenda Mallory, Danielle Morsette, and Sara Siestreem—front and center at the Frye Art Museum. Using sculpture, weaving, and mixed-media painting, these women are evolving traditional textile practices into a modern expression of Indigenous culture.

November

Karon Davis: Not My Circus

November 5–July 4, 2027
Seattle Art Museum 

Seattle Art Museum is bringing the work of Karon Davis, the 2025 recipient of the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, to its third-floor galleries. Known for her figurative sculptures—made from plaster casts of real people—Davis presents sharp commentary on race, history, and the violence of the social and political systems in which we live. Her SAM show, Karon Davis: Not My Circus, draws on the duality of the Big Top, presenting humor vs. tragedy, privacy vs. showmanship, and power vs. submission, and how each of these themes plays out in our daily lives.

Adrienne Matthews’ work will be on display in the Visions of Worldbuilding exhibition hosted by ARTS at King Street Station. Here, a piece from Matthews’ Auntie series draws inspiration from professional headshots taken in the 1970s through 1990s.

Courtesy of ARTS at King Street Station

Visions of Worldbuilding

November 5–January 9, 2027
ARTS at King Street Station

Bringing together a group of Black and Brown women artists—Kat Noel, Jenna Hanchard, Janell Jordan, and Eula Scott Bynoe—Visions of Worldbuilding at ARTS at King Street Station looks at the idea of “mothering,” both as poetic concept and actual practice.

Light in the Forest

November 14-15
Pilchuck Glass School

Head north to Stanwood for Pilchuck Glass School’s annual Light in the Forest event. Over two days, the institution’s storied campus will transform with neon installations by Seattle-based artist, MiNHi England. Visitors can experience it via a self-guided tour throughout the grounds.