Seattle June art: Pride month, Pioneer Square events and more
It's almost Pride month! Below are three great LGBTQ+ art exhibits as well as a bevy of other cool shows and events you can't miss, including an exhibit in a house slated for demolition and an artist-designed mini-golf course at Olympic Sculpture Park.
‘Boren Banner Series: Chloe King'
Bathed in azure light, eyes closed, arm up, the figure moves in ecstasy. On a crowded dance floor, they move with abandon. In Chloe King's 16-foot-by-20-foot banner on the Frye Art Museum's exterior, the dance floor becomes a giant, pulsing ocean in which queer folks lose ourselves to find ourselves, said Frye curatorial assistant Alexis L. Silva.
"For many queer people, nightlife is the only place where we can feel like ourselves," they said. "This freedom that we find on the dance floor is both exhilarating and dangerous, something that feels so good you may just get lost in it forever. This duality is what makes queer nightlife both a place of total acceptance and a place of risk, and we can see Chloe translating this through abstracted bright forms, dancing figures and targeted cultural references."
Through Oct. 11; Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., Seattle; free; 206-622-9250, fryemuseum.org
‘Curtis Steiner: A Queer Light'
In a new series of pastel pencil drawings, Curtis Steiner's male figures glow. Their light dances from within. Aureoles multiply. Angelic and archetypal, these portraits feel nonetheless painted directly from Steiner's life, distilled from a period of emotional upheaval: "the end of a long-term relationship, the experience of reentering single life at 60, and the growing sense of political instability and cultural regression in America," the artist writes in his exhibition statement. As a gay man living with HIV for more than 40 years, Steiner reflects on what it means to age within queer culture while still experiencing vitality, connection, tenderness and desire.
June 6-27; Traver Gallery, 1100 W. Ewing St., Suite 160, Seattle; free; travergallery.com
‘QUEER FOR ALL'
An all-caps title to invite artists of all ages, backgrounds, identities and experience levels in one overflowing celebration of queer creativity: That's "QUEER FOR ALL."
"A couple months ago, we did our first version of this type of show called ‘Free For All,' " said Timothy Rysdyke, founder and curator of The Factory. "The concept was simply opening the doors wide open and putting together a big group art show for anyone who wanted to participate."
Similarly, this show has no theme, no jury and no barrier to entry, making room (literally) for first-time artists to brush shoulders with art world veterans. The goal, Rysdyke said, is to create as much space as possible for queer artists "to show up exactly as they are."
June 11-25; open 6-10 p.m. June 11 (Capitol Hill Art Walk), 6-9 p.m. June 25 or by appointment; The Factory, 1216 10th Ave., Seattle; free; factoryseattle.com
Here's what else you should see in June
"Central District Legacy: Black. Power. Black Panthers." honors the legacy of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party, the first chapter established outside California, through the eyes of contemporary artists, including Charles Conner, Toni Toney and Tasanee Durrett.
Through Aug. 2; ARTE NOIR, 2301 E. Union St., Suite H, Seattle; free; artenoir.org/gallery
Last year, a Seattle house facing demolition briefly became a home for art. On opening night, I saw musicians perform in a room painted completely red with chairs hanging from the ceiling. The project, called "Once Removed," is now in its second iteration, with work by a new selection of artists.
Opening June 13, with open hours to be determined; message on Instagram or email for address: hello@onceremoved.org
With "Orders of Nearness," artists Erin Milez, Emily Counts and Matt Jones play with time and reality, where floral and fungal forms and realistic shapes bend and soften and flutter into dreamlike worlds.
Through June 27; studio e gallery, 609 S. Brandon St., Seattle; free; 206-762-3322, studioegallery.net
I eagerly await "Lotus L. Kang: I hear the hollow boom of time." It's the Canadian-born, New York-based artist's largest museum exhibition to date, which includes an installation of large sheets of industrial film exposed to different light sources in a process she calls "tanning," as well as and in addition to other reflections on the ephemerality of photography and life itself.
June 6-Sept. 27; Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., Seattle; free; 206-622-9250, fryemuseum.org
In "Imagined Freedom | Revealing Bodies Never Allowed to Be Seen," Forouzan Safari dreams up an alternative reality not shaped by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, but by "women's and queer bodies … freely inhabiting public and historical spaces," Safari writes.
June 4-July 18; ANTiPODE Art Gallery, 103 S. Main St., Seattle; free; antipodeseattle.com
Tee up! Seattle Art Museum has commissioned Seattle-based artists - Julie Alpert, Andy Arkley, Zack Bent, Elizabeth Gahan, LMN Architects, Cathy McClure, Chris McMullen, Kalina Wińska and Anthony White - to create a custom nine-hole mini-golf course at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Wednesdays through Sundays, June 17-Sept. 7; Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave., Seattle; $10-$15, free for anyone 5 and younger; 206-654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org
In "Recognize Me In Everything," Seattle painter Lars Bergquist reflects on his six-year hiatus from the city and his experience undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In oil paintings and installation works, he reflects on how he and the city have changed - and how they will be remembered.
6-11 p.m. June 4 and 6-10 p.m. June 11; Europa Gallery, 401 Second Ave. S., Suite 103, Seattle; free; europaseattle.com/gallery
Correction: An earlier version of this story had a photo caption that incorrectly named where the Lotus L. Kang: I hear the hollow boom of time. exhibit is taking place. It'll be at the Frye Art Museum, not the Henry Art Gallery.
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