I just got back from an art-filled 2-day trip to Seattle…beautiful abstract works, delicious sushi and Thai food and the ballet! Here I am in the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) in front of one of Joan Mitchell‘s abstract expressionist works, just one of the many on display!
My friend Catherine Fields and I went last week to see the Elles exhibition on now until January 13, 2013 at the SAM. This landmark exhibition of more than 130 works of art made by 75 women artists from 1907 to 2007 from the Centre Pompidou in Paris was what drew us in. Although, there were not many abstract paintings in the show we were very pleased that the SAM, in conjunction with the exhibition, displayed works from their collection by notable female artists like Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell. Always incredible to see these works up close!
(Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room)
Affordable Art Fair
Then we were delighted to happen upon the Affordable Art Fair near our hotel at Seattle Centre. This was a gathering of 50 galleries representing contemporary artists and the first edition in Seattle.
Here were some of my favourite picks from the fair:
Michelle Y Williams creates beautiful abstracts on metal plates which she suspends between sheets of plexiglass. That’s her below explaining the process. She also had larger paintings, some sculptures and a long display of metal bands.
Elaine Hanowell, represented by Seattle’s Artxchange Gallery, creates lighted fish sculptures,
and Seattle’s Patricia Rovzar Gallery was showing new encaustic works by Stephanie Hargrave , animated human and birdlike sculptures created by collaborating artists Robin and John Gumaelius, and abstracted figures by Kathy Jones.
From further afield was Chloe Lamb‘s work represented by Cricket Fine Art in London
and Chilean Fernando Alday‘s colourful collages from the Villa del Art Gallery in Barcelona, Spain.
And finally from gf contemporary gallery in Santa Fe, artist Nigel Conway whose quirky eye-popping figures make you smile!
Seattle’s Pike Street market was our final destination before heading back to Canada…what an inspiring and rewarding trip south of the border!
