Seattle’s oldest neighborhood is home to dozens of art galleries. The First Thursday art walk in Pioneer Square began in the early 1960s and is still going strong today.
On First Thursday, galleries often showcase new exhibits from 6 to 8 p.m.
First Thursday parking is free from 5 – 10 p.m. at Frye Garage (117 Third Ave. S.), Butler Garage (114 James St.) and 450 Alaskan (450 Alaskan Way - entrance on King Street). To redeem, pick up a voucher at participating Pioneer Square stores, restaurants or galleries.
Here are a few shows you may want to visit July 5.
“Will Robinson: Wind, Water and Stone” at Foster/White gallery
At most art galleries touching the art is a faux pas, but that’s not the case for Will Robinson’s latest show. He wants the viewer to touch and interact with the towering stone sculptures he’s created for “Wind, Water and Stone.”
From the gallery: “As a native of the Pacific Northwest, Will Robinson has long been inspired by the flora and fauna surrounding him. Taking his cues from movement in the natural world, Robinson imbues his enduring stone sculptures with the patterns of life. Elements of dance, wind, water, fire and flight all gracefully emerge from the locally quarried basalt and granite. These whimsical forms float and balance above their stolid bases with a grace that defies the weight of the medium. It is the ephemeral made tangible. The sheer physical presence of Robinson’s work cannot be denied. He seeks out contrasting textures and shapes to manipulate the space so that his works can engage with their surroundings, with the audience and with each other.”
WHAT: “Will Robinson: Wind, Water and Stone”
WHEN: Opens First Thurs. from 6 – 8 p.m., runs until July 21
WHERE: Foster/White gallery, 220 Third Avenue S, Seattle
“Eric Beltz: New Skies” at Prographica/KDR
“New Skies” is a collection of graphite on Bristol drawings and is Eric Beltz’s debut exhibition in Seattle. The works build on the Santa Barbara-based artist’s obsession with the cycle of the moon.
From the gallery: “Rendered with a rich pattern of triangles, diamonds, hexagons, and circles these drawings offer a visually dynamic field that captures the wonder of gazing into the unknowable vastness of space. Beltz explores cosmic weightlessness, mind-bending reflections, and pattern as a way to conjure up the magnetic forces between planets, moons, and stars. For the first time in this ongoing series, the artist renders the starry night sky both as dawn breaks and the forests horizon line enters into the picture plane. Even the intensity of the summer sun can’t hide a daylight moon from Beltz’s keen eye and tightly focused pencil.”
WHAT: “Eric Beltz: New Skies”
WHEN: Opens First Thurs., 6 – 8 p.m., runs until July 28, Beltz will be in attendance on First Thursday.
WHERE: Prographica/KDR, 313 Occidental Avenue S., Seattle
“Fred Stonehouse: Silent Treatment” at Prographica/KDR
“Silent Treatment” is a collection of paintings and works on paper exploring the artist’s perspective of the space between language and active communication.
From the gallery: “For the artist, growing up in a family with many deaf relatives, the idea of ‘silent speech’ was not an oxymoron, but an organically understood reality. The often half-formed figures in Stonehouse’s latest work weep, bleed, sweat and send words into the ether, never quite achieving direct connections. Residing in an amorphous state of becoming, or dissolving, their efforts to reach each other conceptually are analogous to their difficulty in achieving physical form. Very much as in a dream, the narratives of Stonehouse’s work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday, powerfully influenced by surrealism, theology, outsider and folk art, underscored with wit and brutal psychic exposure.”
WHAT: “Fred Stonehouse: Silent Treatment”
WHEN: Opens First Thurs. 6 – 8 p.m., runs until July 28
WHERE: Prographica/KDR, 313 Occidental Avenue S, Seattle
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