Santiago Calatrava: The Architect's Studio
NORTH GALLERIES
July 17 - November 21, 2004

Artist Lecture Note:

A videotape of the November 7, 2004 Santiago Calatrava exhibition is available through the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Please visit http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/projects_lectures_Katz.htm#calatrava for more information.

Santiago Calatrava: The Architect's Studio highlights the work of one of the most celebrated and original architects of the present day. From the Olympic Sports Complex in Athens to the PATH terminal at New York’s Ground Zero, Calatrava is responsible for many of today’s signature building sites. The exhibition presents these projects within the context of his entire career, with special attention to the Lyon TGV Station, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Tenerife concert Hall, and two of his extraordinary bridges, along with his continuing work in Valencia, Spain and Malmö, Sweden.

Santiago Calatrava: The Architect's Studio emphasizes movement. Videos create the sense of moving in and through his built works, including Calatrava’s largest building project— the City of Arts and Sciences, which occupies over one million square feet in Valencia. Another video travels up the construction elevator on the exterior of the high rise apartment tower in Malmö, called “Turning Torso”— at 54 stories, the tallest building in Scandinavia.

The Architect's Studio also explores Calatrava’s dynamic process in the milieu of the architect’s studio, including the way its floor is strewn with sketches of figures in motion and charging bulls. Viewers navigate working materials, sketches, and works in-progress to experience the sweep of the architect’s distinguished career. Presentation and working models and sculptural studies further explore the essential element of motion, often abstracted from his graceful bird and figure studies. This exhibition affords a first-hand view of Calatrava’s renowned and groundbreaking designs, his creative working practice, as well as an experiential perspective on his built projects.

Santiago Calatrava: The Architect's Studio was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by independent curator Kirsten Kiser with Curatorial Coordinator Jordan Howland. Support for this exhibition was provided by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, City of Seattle; NBBJ Group; Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; Magnusson Klemencic Associates; Bon-Macy’s; España Acción Cultural Exterior; Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects; Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership; LMN Architects; Donnally Architects, and donors to the Henry Art Gallery Contemporary Art Fund. In-kind support provided by the Grand Hyatt Seattle, The Stranger, KEXP 90.3 FM, AIA Seattle, and Peter Miller Books.

Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth
STROUM GALLERY
August 21 - October 31, 2004


In 1980, the eruption of Mount St. Helens moved photographer Emmet Gowin, renowned for his black-and-white aerial photographs, to charter a light plane and make pictures of the
natural devastation below. He returned to Washington State in 1986, where a flight over the Hanford Nuclear Reservation revealed to the artist " pattern of relationships and a dark history of place and events” that altered his perception of the age in which he lives.

His first photograph of this abandoned nuclear reactor site is a key image in Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth, featuring work created since this life-altering flight in 1986. In that year Gowin extended his aerial photography explorations of the American West to
include military test sites, mining operations, golf courses, off-road vehicle courses, and toxic waste treatment facilities. He recorded the tension between natural splendors and the visible scars of our technological developments.

At first glance, the alluring abstracted forms and nuanced tones of Gowin's richly hand-toned photographs are visually stunning. Only closer attention by the viewer reveals the dangerous reality depicted.

Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth was organized by the Yale University Art Gallery in association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The exhibition was made possible by grants and support from: Jane Watkins ’79, Anna Marie and Robert Shapiro ’56, Julia and Harrison Augur ’64, Raymond and Helen DuBois ’78, Evelyn and Robert Doran ’55, Carolyn and Gerald Grinstein ’54, Eliot Norlen ’84 and Timothy Gradley ’83, Lindsay McCrum ’80, Richard and Ronay Menschel, Betsey Frampton, Carol and Sol LeWitt, an anonymous donor, the Mr. and Mrs. George Rowland, B.A. 1933, Fund, and the Heinz Family Foundation.

Presentation of Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Associate Curator Robin Held. Support for this exhibition was provided by Paul and Debbi Brainerd, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and donors to the Henry Art Gallery Contemporary Art Fund. In-kind support provided by the Grand Hyatt Seattle, The Stranger, and KEXP 90.3.

Alex Morrison
NORTH GALLERIES
July 17 - October 10, 2004

For his first solo exhibition in the U.S., Alex Morrison (b. 1972) will present a new film installation alongside recent photographs and drawings. Connected to previous works such as Housewrecker (2002), by dueling themes of personal freedom versus social order, performance and authenticity, idealism and subversion, the new, as yet Untitled work reenacts a pivotal scene from Lindsay Anderson’s IF (1968), a seminal film from the era of student revolt. Unlike Housewrecker, a multi-channel video documenting a group of kids as they attempt to destroy their derelict house, Untitled forgoes action for a philosophical conversation between young non-conformists, revealing the impulse behind violent protest.

Similar in sentiment, Morrison’s Poached photographs use skateboarding to explore how youth subcultures are tamed as they enter the mainstream. Named after the term for documenting or stealing another skater’s moves, Poached exposes the behind-the-scenes machinations of a TV crew as they film local skateboarders in a suburban concrete skatepark. Keenly interested in the socio-political implications of architecture, Morrison notes: “ the park domesticates the energy of rebellious youth. It is rebellion as cultural readymade.”

Alex Morrison was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Assistant Curator Pamela Meredith. Support for this exhibition was provided by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and donors to the Contemporary Art Fund. In-kind support provided by Grand Hyatt Seattle, The Stranger, Tablet Magazine and KEXP 90.3 FM. Special thanks to Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver.

The Pretenders
NORTH GALLERIES
July 17 - October 10, 2004

The Pretenders explores notions of masquerade, performance, and celebrity in recent photo-based portraiture, including works by Annie Leibowitz, Yasamasa Morimura, Cindy Sherman, and Valentin Vallhonrat. The photographs, selected primarily from the Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, highlight the tension between exposure and
concealment, and play with concepts of borrowed identity.

The Pretenders was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Curator Pamela Meredith.

Wesley Wehr: In Memoriam (1929-2004)
NORTH GALLERIES
July 17 - October 10, 2004

This exhibition focused on the paintings of Wes Wehr, a multi-talented member of our community. As an accomplished artist, author, curator, collector, teacher, historian, and important friend to the Henry Art Gallery, Wes Wehr's generosity manifested itself in many ways, including gifting more than 170 works of art to our permanent collection. An important supporter and advocate of local cultural institutions, he will be greatly missed by many, including all of us here at the Henry Art Gallery. His intimately scaled, richly layered paintings can be read simultaneously as abstract meditations and Pacific Northwest landscapes.

Selections from the Collection of William and Ruth True
EAST GALLERY
May 7 - October 3, 2004

Selections is a snapshot of the contemporary art collection of William and Ruth True. Since its start in the early 90s, the collection has grown to several hundred pieces, including large series by major artists in photography and important works in video. The collection’s original focus in portraiture interpreted that genre as broadly as possible; examples range from Betty, After Gerhard Richter (From Pictures of Color) by Vik Muniz to Jean-Luc Mylayne’s Number 41 Avrilmai and John Currin’s “(to be titled).” More recently, the Trues have sought out large-scale installations and many other adventurous art forms, including single-channel and multi-channel videos. Timed to celebrate the opening of Western Bridge, their new foundation and contemporary art space, Selections offers a view of the breadth of the True collection: four linked 2002 works by Trisha Donnelly that document the artist creating rain in a distant Canadian forest, videos by Euan Macdonald and Kristen Stoltmann, and several of the portraits that began William and Ruth’s extraordinary collecting partnership.

Selections from the Collection of William and Ruth True was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Chief Curator Elizabeth A. Brown.

Generations in Photography
MEZZANINE
Through July 18, 2004

In 2003, the Henry Art Gallery and Youth in Focus conducted a community partnership funded by the MetLife Foundation Museum Connections Program. An award-winning photography program for urban youth, the partnership brought students regularly to the Henry for tours, meetings with artists, and two exhibitions of student photography. One unique facet of this initiative was the Youth in Focus Student Acquisition Committee, organized to select new acquisitions made possible by the grant for the Henry’s permanent collection. These students, aged 15 - 18, learned about the museum’s collections, reviewed numerous images and artists, and chose three wonderful new images. This acquisition is an important permanent legacy of this partnership. The students chose photographs by noted American photographers Helen Connor. This acquisition is exhibited with three recent gifts from Joseph and Elaine Monsen to display the range of exciting new photography that has recently come to the Henry.

Henry Art Gallery, purchased through funds from the MetLife Foundation and selected by the Youth in Focus Student Acquisition Committee as part of the 2003 Open for Interpretation partnership program, 2003.208

Generations in Photography was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Curator of Education Tamara Moats.

Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue, 1961–2001
STROUM GALLERY
March 20 - July 18, 2004

In the early 1960s, avant-garde dancer and choreographer Trisha Brown began to incorporate everyday movement into her dances and, at the same time, collaborate with visual artists, creating a fascinating mix of visual art and choreography on stage. Working with such artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd, Nancy Graves, Fujiko Nakaya, and Terry Winters, she developed a complex exploration of dance form. Through dance, Brown investigates the fundamental characteristics of movement: gravity, weightlessness, duration, sequence, and repetition, as well as the interactions between art and life. In this multi-media exhibition Brown’s collaborative works are chronicled with drawings, paintings, photographs, video projections, costumes, set elements, and other artworks that led to or emerged from Brown's work with visual artists.

Dance and Art in Dialogue is a “living” exhibition that includes performance, workshops, lectures, and a residency with the Trisha Brown Company. Collaborating with the UW Dance Program, Cornish College for the Arts, and the UW World Dance Series, the Henry organized an intriguing mix of additional programming. Brown’s 1970 dance Floor of the Forest was performed weekly by UW and Cornish dance students, using the set on exhibition at the Henry.

The Trisha Brown Company was in residence as part of the UW World Dance Series at Meany Hall, performing May 20–22, 2004.

Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue, 1961–2001 was co-organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy and the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College and curated by Hendel Teicher. The exhibition and publication were made possible by a major gift from Oscar Tang, in memory of Frances Young Tang. Additional support was generously provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., the Fifth Floor Foundation, J. Mark Rudkin, and the Sun Hill Foundation. The re-creation of Opal Loop/Cloud Installation # 72503 by Fujiko Nakaya is supported by the Asian Cultural Council.

The exhibition was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Associate Curator Robin Held. Support for Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue has been generously provided by The Allen Foundation for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts, and PONCHO, and donors to the University of Washington’s Arts & Sciences Exchange Program. Staging of Floor of The Forest is sponsored by The Boeing Company. In-kind support has been provided by the Grand Hyatt Seattle, KUOW Public Radio 94.9FM, and KEXP 90.3 FM.

University of Washington Master of Fine Arts 2004
NORTH GALLERIES
May 29 - June 20, 2004

The Henry presents the University of Washington's Master of Fine Arts annual exhibition in the North Galleries. Throughout their graduate program, students have worked with faculty advisers and other artists to expand concepts, develop advanced techniques, discuss critical issues, and emerge with a vision and direction for their own work. Pieces in the exhibition represent the culmination of this process as each artist completes his or her graduate study.

Ceramics: Andrew Daly, Ryan Horvath, Timothy Roda, James Sumey

Fibers: Laura Alexander, Lissa Valentine, Laura Wright

Metals: Nanz Aalund, Julia Harrison, Mollie Montgomery

Painting: Peter Bentley, Olivia Britt, Emily Gherard, Jessie Hedden, Brent Holland, David Ngirailemesang, Jason Wood

Photography: Lisa Darms, Allison Manch, Gregory Schaffer

Printmaking: Kristen Ramirez, Kimberly Van Someren

Sculpture: Michael Magrath, David Rubin, Nina Zingale

Visual Communication Design: Sean Bolan, Christina Gonzalez, Margo Hofmann, Meewon Hong, Joan Li, Jason Tselentis

Curated for the Henry Art Gallery by Head Preparator and Exhibitions Designer Jim Rittimann.

Roy McMakin: A Door Meant as Adornment
NORTH GALLERIES
February 7 - May 9, 2004


Roy McMakin: A Door Meant as Adornment offers a mid-career survey of Seattle-based artist Roy McMakin, tracing the development of his career in art, design, and architecture. Meaningful and poetic interconnections between the words “adore,” “adornment,” “ornament,” and “door” make them ripe for McMakin’s playful sensibility, allowing him to link diverse concepts and to prime viewers for some of the ways he blurs boundaries between the traditional definitions of furniture, buildings, and sculpture.

Trained as a painter, McMakin became a strong presence in the design world when he founded the Domestic Furniture Company in 1987. In 1994, he received a commission from the Getty Center in Los Angeles to design desks, upholstered chairs, and sofas, to bring, in his own words, “humanity, warmth, eclecticism, and sweetness” to the museum.

Roy McMakin: A Door Meant as Adornment was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and curated by Michael Darling. The exhibition was sponsored by House & Garden. Additional support provided by The Ron Burkle Endowment for Architecture and Design Programs, the Pacific Design Center, Audrey M. Irmas, and Heidi and Erik Murkoff. In-kind support provided by Electrolux Home Products and Fine Paints of Europe. The exhibition was organized for the Henry by Chief Curator Elizabeth A. Brown and Assistant Curator Pamela Meredith and presented with the support of the Allen Foundation for the Arts, PONCHO, the Casteel Family Foundation, William and Ruth True, Patricia True, the Henry Art Gallery Contemporary Art Fund, and an anonymous donor. In-kind support was provided by Home Depot and Maharam.

Ellen Gallagher: Preserve/Murmur
EAST GALLERY
January 17 - April 18, 2004

From the moment of her highly public debut—with the Whitney Biennial of 1995—Ellen Gallagher has been pushing the edges of pictorial art, both formally and thematically. In her recent work she continues to confront issues of racial identity in a lyrically aesthetic way, transforming racist imagery by multiplication and disjunction into elegant abstract elements.

Ellen Gallagher: Preserve/Murmur comprises three distinct bodies of work that the artist calls drawings, although they incorporate sculptural elements, movie film and projectors, Wite-Out, plasticine, pomade, and stick-on toys, alongside more conventional media. Murmur (2003) is a set of five animated films made in collaboration with Dutch photographer Edgar Cleijne. The ethereal large-scale drawings from the Watery Ecstatic series (2002–2004) include passages literally carved into the thick watercolor paper. In a group of 20 works on paper entitled Preserve, Gallagher mutates wig advertisements from Ebony, Black Digest, and other mid-century African American magazines, highlighting the covert racism that fueled the market for products like wigs and skin lighteners. Also part of Preserve is sculptural work that resembles a minimalist jungle gym (which Gallagher puns as a “Jungle Jim”), the surface of which is covered with low relief patterns from her familiar lexicon of lips, eyeballs, and wigs.

The subjects Gallagher engages range from the shifting standards of female beauty and the sexually-charged dis-play of boxers’ bodies to the myth of a black Atlantis. From monumental to intimate, from hand-drawn to cast, and from sharply aggressive to lyrically subtle, these works demonstrate the breadth and nuance of Gallagher’s accomplished voice.

Ellen Gallagher: Preserve/Murmur was organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Chief Curator Elizabeth A. Brown. Support for this exhibition was provided by Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen, the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, City of Seattle, the Henry Art Gallery Contemporary Art Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In-kind support provided by the Grand Hyatt Seattle.

Heel !
MEZZANINE
January 10 - April 11, 2004

Heel ! is a spirited selection of 20th century women's high-heeled shoes, showcasing unexpected treasures from the Henry’s extensive costume collection. High heels, powerful sensual symbols of female beauty, are also important indicators of social class. This selection illustrates how shoe designers experimented in a variety of materials, creating heels in varying shapes, sizes, and heights, often revisiting trends from prior decades. Included are pumps from the 1910s and 1920s, platform and wedgies from the 1930s, and the stiletto heel, first called so in 1953. Heel! presents an opportunity to celebrate our fascination with high-heeled shoes and to examine our own relationship to this undying fashion.

Heel! was curated by Curator of Collections Judy Sourakli.