Back by popular demand, the Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair (SDAF) returns for the month of August, celebrating the resilience of visual arts in Seattle with over 40 galleries, art institutions and non-profit organizations participating in this month-long event.
Having introduced his first Mexican Zodiac series in 2018, sculptor George Rodriguez has recently collaborated with 13 Mexican and Chicanx/Chicane artists on his newest iteration of these forms, El Zodíaco Familiar. The series will be the focus of Rodriguez’s upcoming exhibition at Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA, opening June 19, 2021. Each animal represents a sign in the zodiac, and replaces an animal of the traditional Chinese zodiac. And, each animal will feature finishes by a different artist.
Comprised of artwork made in his classes at the University of Washington where he taught for 30 years, the student selections includes work in a variety of media that was kept to be used as examples in future classes. Mason was an inspiration and mentor to many of his students.
Alden Mason’s first comprehensive museum exhibition Alden Mason: Fly Your Own Thing is now on view at Bellevue Arts Museum. Organized by the Museum in partnership with the Alden Mason Foundation, Fly Your Own Thing offers a clear overview of Mason’s diverse body of work.
"One of the great things about the internet and digital cataloging of pre-computer era art objects is that it preserves their original purpose and importance. I feel it in no way hinders the legacies of those objects, as more people can access the work and learn about their histories. It’s only when someone (an artist, for example) uses the work to manipulate those paintings to make a current day statement on the fragility of legacy."
"It’s the medium that tends to keep me interested enough to keep doing it. It’s basically because for over four decades, I’ve never been able to master it. The fact that it’s still a struggle keeps me going."
"I grew up in Minnesota where there was a heightened sense of seasonal change. There was the stark intensity of winter, the revival of spring, that enveloping warmth of summer and the blazing intensity of fall. I spent a lot of time at our summer lake cabin. The luminous impact of sky and water, sunrise and sunset, has had a profound lifelong impact on me."