Visual Arts
Studio Sessions: Lauren Boilini
Seattle artist Lauren Boilini talks about animal behavior, field research, and the whale fall installation she counts among her proudest works.
Lauren Boilini has spent years building dense, teeming painted worlds full of animals, movement, and tension. Her work often starts with close observation—time in the field and conversations with scientists—and turns that research into large-scale paintings that feel charged, layered, and alive. Born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, Boilini studied painting and art history at…
Woven Wonders
Coast Salish weaving, past and present, on view at the Burke Museum.
On display now at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving examines the traditional art form and its importance to Coast Salish communities. “This exhibition broadens the definition of American art by incorporating Indigenous voices and artistic practices historically marginalized due to biases…
Lifting the Fog
Beyond Mysticism at Seattle Art Museum broadens the old story of Northwest art.
For a long time, Northwest Modernism got boxed into one idea: mysticism—a way of describing the region’s art as inward-looking, spiritual, and closely tied to nature. That goes back to a 1953 Life magazine story about Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Guy Anderson, and Morris Graves, the four artists most associated with the Northwest School. Beyond…
Studio Sessions: Cristina Martinez
On the cusp of a new group show, Northwest artist Cristina Martinez reflects on storytelling, motherhood, and personal success.
Artistically inclined from a young age, Cristina Martinez was attending fashion school when she had a realization: Her passion wasn’t necessarily sparked by the clothes she was sketching, but by the stories behind her work. Drawing from her Black and Mexican roots, and from the lives, histories, and cultures of the community around her, Martinez…
Studio Sessions: Tininha Silva
Brazilian-born fiber artist Tininha Silva talks about building a life in the Pacific Northwest and the coastal landscape that influences her work.
Along the shores of the Salish Sea, textures are everywhere—seaweed tangled in the tide, stones worn smooth by water, the strange geometry of coral and barnacles. Those details are finding their way into the work of artist Tininha Silva. Silva grew up in Brazil’s rugged Pernambuco region before moving to Seattle in 1999 after earning…
Spring Arts Preview: Visual Art
New exhibitions across Seattle offer plenty of reasons to spend an afternoon gallery hopping.
Pioneer Square’s First Thursday crowds may be getting the headlines, but the city’s visual arts scene stretches far beyond one neighborhood. From Belltown to Ballard to Capitol Hill—and even down to Tacoma—galleries and museums are presenting new exhibitions that reward a slow look. Here are the shows we recommend seeing this spring. Indira Allegra: The…
Urban Grit Meets Wild Beauty: Inside Seattle Art Museum’s Beyond Mysticism
Seattle’s history is rooted in its fascinating juxtaposition of industry and nature, inspired by the region’s dramatic landscapes and rapidly changing cityscape. Seattle Art Museum’s current exhibition, Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest, invites you to meet the artists who captured that tension and transformed it into a bold new vision of Modernism. Modernism, Made in…
Photo Essay: Steady Trails
Words and photographs by Tiffanie Yang.
Every friday, I get the same text message from my parents: “Where are you hiking this weekend? Don’t forget to send us photos!” It’s a simple reminder of how deeply living in Washington has defined who I am today. Hiking, backpacking, and photography have become more than just hobbies—they’re the driving forces behind my personal…
Driftwood Dreams
Cascadia Art Museum uncovers the lost Surrealist who spent 40 years painting in Seattle.
One of the most compelling parts of Objects of the Elements: The Art of Elsa Thoresen at Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds is a display case filled with the actual pieces of driftwood artist Elsa Thoresen used as source material, mostly in the 1930s and ’40s. They’re ordinary enough at first glance—knotted and gnarled by…
The Secret Lives of Spiders
A new Pacific Science Center exhibit asks visitors to trade fear for fascination.
Every year, spiders kill about 20 people worldwide. That’s fewer than scorpions, lightning strikes, or hippos—and a tiny fraction of the 17.9 million deaths caused by cardiovascular disease. Yet spiders might still be the creatures we fear most. Pacific Science Center’s new exhibition, Spiders: From Fear to Fascination, aims to change that. Created by the…
Sound To Summit: AANHPI Voices Rising in Seattle
Celebrate AANHPI Month in Seattle with art and cultural events
From the ornate pagodas in the International District to Japanese style-gardens, the influence of Asian and Islander cultures is visible across Seattle. Since its earliest days, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian immigrants have been an inseparable part of Seattle’s fabric, influencing its cuisine, architecture, local businesses, and art scene. Just a decade after the…
Empowering Students through Photography | Sponsored
The arts are an important part of youth and education. Art teaches us to look at the world beyond ourselves and at the beauty of everyday occurrences around us and within each other. Started by high school photography instructors, the Washington State High School, Photography Competition (WSHSPC), believes all children should have the opportunity to speak…
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ ‘Carpe Fin’ Tells Its Story at Seattle Art Museum
Commissioned by SAM, the new piece is a 6-by-19-foot watercolor mural condensing a Haida folktale into one immense color-drenched panel
This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. Sensing an affinity between the iconography of his First Nation art tradition and the boldness and sweep of the Japanese film/graphic-novel visual style known as manga, Haida visual artist and British Columbia resident Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas combines the two—“committed to,” as he puts it,…
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