As he approaches 30 years of exhibiting his vernacular, street-influenced paintings in galleries and museums, Casey McGlynn returns to one of his earliest metaphors in his new collection I Am the Horse. Grazing and at rest, the horses appear in herds and as silhouettes, their interiors filled with a cacophony of symbols and color that bristle with a fervent, raw energy.
When Tony Angell walked into Richard White's office to share his artwork in 1972, it was the beginning of a 50-year journey in art and nature that Foster/White proudly continues to celebrate with Angell's new exhibition of sculptures, Aloft and At Rest. For half a century, Angell's representations of birds have dazzled viewers with scientific accuracy and a virtuoso sense for the inner temperament of his subjects that conveys their intangible spirit and resilience.
Foster/White Gallery announces the debut of Ritual Vessels, a new collection of ceramic sculptures by George Rodriguez. Varying from human faces peering out of animal costumes, to a pack of small dogs, to conjoined and single figures, to planter pots large and small, Ritual Vessels celebrates Rodriguez's vibrant imagination as he nears 20 years as an artist.
Sheri Bakes has been painting the natural world with an ethereal intensity for more than 20 years. Her new collection of landscape paintings draws inspiration from a close friend's challenging circumnavigation of Mt. Rainier on the Wonderland Trail. Highly attuned to atmospheric conditions that border on the non-visual, such as fine mist in the air or thin veils of fog lifting in morning sun, Bakes seeks to represent subtle qualities of being alive and present in time and space.
Foster/White Gallery returns to its series of group exhibitions focused on the classical elements with Elements: Water, featuring a range of media from photography and collage to painting, textile, and sculpture. Following its predecessors Elements: Earth (2020) and Elements: Fire (2021), the latest thematic collection draws from both new and prior work by many of the gallery's artists spread across the North American continent and Australia, including locals Tony Angell, John de Wit, Eva Isaksen, and Cameron Anne Mason. Representations of water alternate from figurative to abstract, and while the color blue is a popular choice, especially for painters, there are wonderful departures from expectation.
Sarah McRae Morton stands with one foot firmly in the tradition of Western figural art and the other in a hauntingly beautiful dreamscape of her own unique imagination. Often referencing literature, natural history, and memory, her paintings convey myth-like narratives that blend reality with dreaming, while highlighting her mastery of paint. McRae Morton's animal menagerie in Fair, Hail includes some of her favorites like whales, boars, and horses as well as some that are less familiar such as alewives, and snow crabs. People in 19th century attire are integrated with the animals often with a sense of blurred movement that the artist is recognized for. Many of the new paintings are presented on panel, and some are as small as 10 x 10 inches, contrasting with the large new canvas of a whale, Fulton's Last Bow.
Quebrada, book with pigment, 5 x 12 x 7 inches
By The End Of The Day, oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches
Guy Laramée | Quebrada | Thirteen Views on a Stay in Brasil
December 2022 - January 2023
Guy Laramée's longstanding fascination with Brasil inspires his new Foster/White exhibitions, where he probes questions of belonging and estrangement in a series of atmospheric landscape paintings as well as a group of new sculptures sourced from second-hand bookstores in Florianopolis. Often with mountains or coastlines shrouded in mist, the paintings form a loose, narrative sequence closely associated with the ambiguity between dreaming and waking.
Laramée explains the connection between the paintings and book sculptures by focusing on the linen covers of the books: "...the faded jade tones of the fabric inspired most of my palette for the paintings." The poetics of travel weigh on the artist's mind as he studies questions of identity and belonging: "In traveling between cultures – and countries – something is abandoned, perhaps definitely. What is it? Is it the adhesion to one’s sets of beliefs? Is it the dream of finding a 'perfect world'?"
Explo, book with pigment, 8 x 9.5 x 8 inches
"In Portuguese as in Spanish, the word Quebrada has a double meaning. Literally, it means ‘broken’. But it is also used to designate a ravine, where the landscape gives the impression of being sunken down. Unlike my previous book work, I started each piece by breaking the spine of the book – apparently its most sturdy part. So I formed the book into a curved or broken shape before carving it. I was quite aware of the metaphor while working in this new way: breaking a book is obviously damaging the knowledge it contains. What does this say about our world? After two years of pandemic, we may have started to feel that our civilization is fragile. How long will it last? Some of the book titles evoke that: Paraiso Perdido / Paradise Lost, for example. In a way, our civilization is broken. Can it heal itself or is it bound to make room to a new one? But often times, from stark perspectives stem hope and the will to continue. Thus, using the other meaning of the word Quebrada, I carved those ravines into luxurious landscapes, suggesting that in this sinking down, something of life will go on." - Guy Laramée
Entering The Dream, oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches
"Over fifteen years, I accumulated about three years in Brasil. My last stay lasted six months. This painting project is an opportunity to encapsulate the feelings that draws one to quit one’s culture, the inner experiences triggered by living in a foreign country. The paintings have a light narrative structure around my last trip in 2022. Each painting has a title that situates it within that narrative. From the first one, Entering the Dream, to the last one, Traveling Between Two Dreams, one questions if one ever comes back from those trips. In traveling between cultures – and countries – something is abandoned, perhaps definitely. What is it? Is it the adhesion to one’s sets of beliefs? Is it the dream of finding a “perfect world”? " - Guy Laramée
Fauna Flora Figure 208, mixed media on linen, 40 x 40 inches
Shar Coulson | Rhythmic Reflections: Pursuit of Nature's Pulsing Heart
November 2022
Shar Coulson's exhibition Rhythmic Reflections: Pursuit of Nature's Pulsing Heart distills the essence of the natural world through gestural abstraction, revealing core truths that resist categorization beyond her longstanding tripartite series title of Fauna, Flora, and Figure. Her paintings convey a profound physicality and texture while also establishing a dynamic range of contrast and color. With formal training in figurative realism, she perceives nature's underlying patterns in wonderfully surprising ways. She often works from accumulated memories and incorporates earlier plein-air experiments.
Fauna Flora Figure 214, mixed media on linen, 54 x 54 inches
"Each endeavor is a free-flowing exploration where the abstract touches the familiar. Something definite is created, but its mystery is still intact. In the beginning, each painting is abstract in all aspects. It’s throughout the paint application that figuration appears and disappears. Periodically, I’ll define an organic shape, pushing it forward to a place of familiarity. One viewer may see plant-like forms, animals, figures or landscape, but others only textured abstract shapes and patterns bathed in lush earth tones." - Shar Coulson
VIEW THE COLLECTION
Nighthawk, metamorphic stone, 51 x 24 x 12 inches
Will Robinson | Movement & Gesture
July 7 - 23, 2022
Seasoned stone sculptor Will Robinson’s nuanced sensibilities with his material have become highly instinctual throughout the three decades his career has spanned. Achieving warmth and softness with unforgiving stone, Robinson breathes life into each piece, revealing the innate qualities of the natural medium he works with. His sculptures are as much about discovery as they are reflections of the artist’s intuition.
Finding boulders and slabs across the Pacific Northwest is the beginning of his artistic process. From the exterior it is often impossible to determine the characteristics and mineral properties within each stone. It is only after he has begun to carve through each piece that he discovers what might be interesting attributes to highlight through sculptural form. Utilizing a wide range of tools, Robinson achieves finished works that not only celebrate the natural elements from which they are hewn, but composes fluidly balanced pieces. Within his newest body of work, Robinson weaves a diverse array of sculptures together through the common thread of his pursuit of beauty.
Fight or Flight, basalt and granite, 87 x 30 x 24 inches
Says Robinson, “my work stems from a free-flowing concept rather than being grounded in any sort of intended meaning.” Will Robinson was born in Bremerton, Washington and studied History at the University of Washington. Robinson's desire to create art began at an early age, growing up in a home filled with art, antiques and bonsai. He chooses to work primarily with stone because of its solidity and ability to withstand the elements and time.
June 2 - 25, 2022
Opening First Thursday June 2, 2022 | 6 - 8 pm
Artist in Attendance
Convergent Paths is Mason's second body of work created during the pandemic; she continues to find refuge in her home and neighborhood, deepening her exploration of the convergence of natural and man-made. Not shying away from the domestic, Mason embraces it. Her work is inspired by her home environs, including plants found close at hand, and her daily view of the Puget Sound. While her suburban setting can be one that insulates from the harsher realities of climate change, Mason challenges us to look beyond our immediate neighborhoods. Only by thinking globally will we truly impact the safety of our own backyards.
Cameron Anne Mason holds a degree in Visual Communication from the Art Institute of Seattle, and studied Liberal Arts at the University of Washington. Her work has been shown across the country and at galleries around the Northwest, as well as Whatcom Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and Bellevue Art Museum. Her work was also included in a group exhibition at Miniartextile in Como Italy, and the Rio Patchwork Design Show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Foster/White Gallery is pleased to present the work of 5 sculptors who are new to the gallery. The artists work in an intriguing range of techniques and materials, from glazed medite and sintra to stone carvings with needle felted wool, and from stitched, salvaged neoprene to slip cast and assembled ceramics. This collection of works runs the gamut from the most simple to the most complex combinations of shape, color and form.
Sara Coffin’s glazed medite and sintra wall mounted sculptures, which the artist refers to as sconces, repeat a simple rectangular form within a larger rectangular form. Utilizing a unique glazing technique to create a spectacle of candy like colors, these pieces seem to be super-naturally glowing with light emanating out of every edge and angled join.
Kyle Johns’ builds complex, multi-faceted molds to create slip cast ceramics which fall between vessel and sculpture. These works take on the appearance of multiple components stacked or assembled, one on top of the next, like a colorful and far more inventive version of Jenga, or a teetering tower with shapes and contours that seem to be moving in every possible direction all at once.
Gabriel John Poucher takes a building block approach to his highly complex ceramic structures which he has described as maximal and cacophonous. Inspired by industrial aesthetics and childhood construction toys, the artist embraces the unpredictability of his chosen material. As the clay reacts to the conditions of firing, stability deteriorates and these pieces contort and collapse resulting in somewhat chaotic forms that veer in and out of accidental harmony.
Stephanie Robison’s stone and felted wool sculptures bring these seemingly opposing materials into unexpected conversation with each other. Simple organic shapes which at times look like strange creatures, with rounded extremities protruding outward, neatly interact with themselves. They are odd and awkward but simple and delightful, and seem to have been dreamed up with a light-hearted sense of humor and freedom.
Henry Jock Walker is an Australian artist whose practice is intertwined with his surfing lifestyle and surf culture. His instincts for breaking up space with line and shapes are somewhat classical but the use of neoprene, which he sources from used wet suits, brings a satisfying texture to the surface. The stitched seams create soft grooves which behave as graphic elements between brightly colored patches of fabric. Often playful and with unexpected titles, the assorted mix of salvaged neoprene offers varying levels of reflection and light absorption which allows the work to take on a more serious tone at times.
Steven Nederveen, Secret Hideout, mixed media on panel, 54 x 54 inches
STEVEN NEDERVEEN
FEELS LIKE HOME
April 7 - 23, 2022
Opening First Thursday April 7, 2022 | 6 - 8 pm
Steven Nederveen’s artwork has long been grounded in the artist’s meditation practice and influenced by the calming effect of immersion in his favorite places. The artist creates oceanic coastlines, panoramic landscapes, and tree compositions using heightened colors and an almost magical, high contrast golden light. The world becomes a place of wonder and mystery as we recognize what is familiar and discover what we are invited to perceive.
Utilizing a unique and layered process, Nederveen’s artworks combine techniques that result in richly textured surfaces. For his newest body of work, Feels Like Home, Nederveen returns to childhood memories of frequent sailing trips with his family - times that cultivated comfort and familiarity with the waters of the Salish Sea. These early journeys in the waterways of the Western Canadian Coast provided Nederveen with a sense of home deeply connected to the elements of the region. Shores on the Puget Sound, views of open waters and distant landscapes - environmental realities that kindled the exploration of maintaining a transmutable home within the world. Feels Like Home includes works that are in form familiar to inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest; yet by using fantastical colors, Nederveen allows us to see his landscapes as though through a lucid dream.
Steven Nederveen, Pillars of Home, mixed media on panel, 60 x 48 inches
Correlations created through climate and geography only go so far; Nederveen takes his specific memories and expands the notion of home to envelop the universal potential we all are welcome to experience; finding the peace of home within ourselves.
Steven Nederveen received a Bachelor of Design from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, and studied at Medicine Hat College, Medicine Hat, AB. He has shown his work across North America. His artwork is part of many collections including Armani Canada, Richmond, BC; Air Canada Lounge at La Guardia, New York, NY; and the Al-Fayed Family Collection, London, UK. He has been the subject of many media features including House and Home Magazine Canada; West Coast Homes and Design; and Vancouver Home Magazine.