Run Amok
As has happened before, an entrenched aesthetic over time loses its capacity to surprise and becomes formulaic and unconvincing. More...
Ceramics at a Breakthrough Art Fair
The recent Seattle Art Fair was the best ever in this city in terms of both quality and attendance. Matthew Kangas sorts through the vein of ceramics, which represented a whole new generation of talent drawn to the medium. More...
Photographic Matrices
In three recent photography exhibitions, artists and curators have arranged individual portraits in grid formations that bring to mind the photographic matrices common to social networking sites. In each, the works create a unique portrait of a community. More...
Still Sweating it at the Keyboard
James Yood has long practiced art criticism, so he naturally pays attention to its uneasy place at the table of contemporary art. Whether the practice is more about finding fault or providing analysis is the choice of the critic, Yood admits that he tends to root for the artists. More...
Slouching Towards a More Perfect Democracy
In a rare departure from art commentary, DeWitt Cheng reflects on how the reality TV influenced Presidential election shapes up coming out of the two major party conventions. Whatever the outcome, he continues to feel the Bern. More...
Sisyphean Creativity
The distillation of human experience into cathartic forms that we may share in is a key task of creative artists. Richard Speer's experience of a new production of Jean Cocteau's "Parade" expresses the exasperating nature of the eternal struggle towards artistic meaning and integrity. More...
On Globalization
Globalization was not long ago considered both necessary and desirable, but it has come under attack this political season. The art world offers both a model and metaphor for the significance of globalization as more than merely a force for economic or political progress. More...
Ballad of a Free Man
Krems, Austria is not your normal tourist destination. James Yood heads there this summer for an artist residency program, which is about more than just his own creative work but also the serendipity of interacting with generally like minded creative strangers. More...
Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen: "Plastic tubes entered my life in 1990 on a fine September day. Since then, the beach animals have ruled my life. It became an addiction ... The beach animals are forcing me to make them. The animals and I live in symbiosis." More...
The Wisdom of Three Women Artists
The influence on professional curator such as David S. Rubin of the artists encountered is a profoundly important function of the job as well as impacting on a more deeply personal level. Rubin cites the take aways gained from encounters with three major creative women. More...
Splatters, Spurts, Sex
Erotic drawings by Sam Francis recently seen in Pasadena were an unfamiliar, uncharacteristic pleasure of frank exuberance. More...
Chuck Close Comes Home
If you thought Chuck Close, the master of the face who suffers from prosopagnosia, hails from New York, think again, he's from the Seattle area. More...
Let’s Hear It for the Worker Bees
Staff and volunteers relying on their own creativity often provide the means to elevate the development of talented artists. More...
How to Visit an Art Museum
As a seasoned teacher and art critic, James Yood has visited museums all over the world. He shares his preparation and approach to visiting and gaining familiarity with a museum collection, and what a specific collection means to the culture of its host city. More...
Bay Area Boom or Bust
Not long ago the Bay Area's economic demographics plunged much of the local art world into near despair. Suddenly with the re-opening of SFMOMA, the recent opening of a new gallery complex and more perhaps the pending dystopia is not yet upon us. More...
Robb Report Art
What constitutes artistic credibility? There is a breed of aesthetic entrepreneur who chases fame and fortune through means unbeholden to traditional pedigrees, but rather to tactics and standards borrowed from the business world. More...
Interview: Kimerly Rorschach
Seattle Art Museum Director Kimerly Rorschach explains her strategy for attuning the program to the region's racial and ethnic diversity. More...
What a Difference a Letter Can Make!
Change, posits James Yood, is always exciting. But what a difference a change of location can make for an artist. Consider the opportunity to take a university teaching post. The location of otherwise excellent schools can shape an entire creative path. More...
Middle Class of the Art World
If much of the public attention is drawn to the art world's elite, Bill Lasarow reminds us that there is a large and vital creative "middle class," many of whom congregate to operate artist run spaces and co-ops that play a key role in providing entry and creative sustenance. More...
