Some of the most creative art curators in the business call the Pacific Northwest home. From Portland to Vancouver they bring polished passion to their profession. Here are come examples:
- Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection opens May 31 and runs through Sept. 2 at the Seattle Art Museum. The language of this exhibit is vividly visual. The topics are elemental, sometimes even epic. They’re depicted in more than 100 artworks from the late 20th to early 21st Centuries – painted on canvas, presented as ochres on bark, carved on wood, woven of fiber and cast in bronze. What they have in common is a sometimes surrealistic vibrancy.
- Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture comes to a close June 3 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The name says it all. Beat Nation juxtaposes urban youth culture with Aboriginal identity. The result is revealing. Up in Vancouver the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Nations have been a meeting ground or Aboriginal youth for decades now. Maybe ironically, Hip Hop helps drive the new rhythms of this place, while art melds modern graffiti murals with traditional Haida figures. The exhibit is a fascinating insight into the cultural transformation of a generation.
- Three Fragments of a Lost Tale springs form the genius of John Frame, a California-based sculptor who works in stop-motion animation. The end-goal is to create a feature-length collection of animated and live-film vignettes. Three Fragments chronicles his work on the project over the last five years. This is imaginative, enthralling art – quite possibly unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s being held over through Memorial Day, Monday May 28, at the Portland Art Museum.
Point your artistic compass northwest, book a flight and allow yourself to be swept away by what you’ll see.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: mayanais)
