Skip to content

Arts

Read More ›

OBAMA Celebrates Bad Art

Upstairs at Café Racer, feast your eyes on the Official Bad Art Museum of Art

1_20200310-alexcrook-4730

This article originally appeared in the May 2020 issue of Seattle magazine.

When Marlow Harris and her husband, Jo David, were given free rein over 10 square feet of a friend’s café back in 2008, they decided to honor two of their favorite things: then presidential candidate Barack Obama and bad art. Today, most of the pieces in the Official Bad Art Museum of Art at Café Racer still come from Harris’ personal collection, although the Jesus made of marshmallow Peeps is by local artist Janet Galore. Now constituting the café’s entire second floor, the OBAMA Room not only serves as a cozy refuge for Racer regulars, but provides what owner Jeff Ramsey describes as “an alternative to exposed wood, wrought iron and fake ferns,” giving young techie transplants a space to recharge away from Amazonia, and older Seattleites a little bit of grunge nostalgia.

Follow Us

When Art and Tech Align

When Art and Tech Align

Xispa brings artists and technologists together in South Lake Union for residencies, experiments, and unexpected collaborations.

Discover xispa, Seattle's new art and tech innovation lab in South Lake Union blending the PNW arts community with the city's tech workforce. Step inside.

Studio Sessions: Liz Tran

Studio Sessions: Liz Tran

After 26 years in Seattle, artist Liz Tran returned to Oregon, but her impact on our city’s art scene will always remain.

Liz Tran’s work blooms with color, energy, and emotion. Bright drips and drops, petal-like shapes—in Tran’s skillful hands, canvas, paint, and fabric burst into dynamic studies of nature, transformation, life. Born and raised in Oregon, Tran spent the past 26 years in Seattle, returning to her hometown, Eugene, to be closer to her family—and the…

Rearview Mirror: Jimothy Fever, a Fresh Art Fair, and Goodies in Woodinville 

Rearview Mirror: Jimothy Fever, a Fresh Art Fair, and Goodies in Woodinville 

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

Unofficial mascot mug Really, is there anything else worth talking about right now? Jimothy has been in the collective consciousness for a little more than two weeks now, and I—along with most everyone I know, the entire city, half of the country, and a slice of the world—am obsessed with him. I don’t know if…

Earth, Wind & Fire Keeps the Groove Going

Earth, Wind & Fire Keeps the Groove Going

Ahead of the band’s Seattle return with Lionel Richie, Grammy Award-winning drummer, percussionist, singer, and songwriter Ralph Johnson talks performing, enduring songs, and his new memoir.

Through the years, Earth, Wind & Fire drummer Ralph Johnson has stepped onstage in Seattle more times than he can count, but it was far from love at first sight. “I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so we had nothing but sunshine and 70-degree weather,” Johnson says. “When I went to Seattle for the…