Open Satellite's "A Roof Upended"

Congratulations to Open Satellite and Olga Koumoundouros for a successful inaugural opening last night.

Ms. Koumoundouros's 'architectonic' sculpture using discarded materials from Bellevue building sites is definitely an appropriate opener for a gallery/residency-program located in a shiny new high-rise and supported by a developer.

If you stop by to see the piece, take a chance to walk around the immediate area and get a feel for the location and context. I appreciated the piece much more after a short walk. One or two blocks from the sparkling 989 Elements high-rise and landscaped sidewalks, I passed a boarded-up building almost entirely covered by trees and moss - being reclaimed by the earth in the midst of Bellevue's explosive upward growth. Koumoundouros’s work at Open Satellite brings pieces of this ‘obsolete’ urban detritus inside the newer, 'better' buildings that are replacing them.

I'm excited to see what Open Satellite will do in the future. From the back of their postcard: "The residency-based program provides an opportunity for emerging and mid-career artists from outside the region to work for an extended period to create large-scale artwork in any medium. Exhibitions are staged four times annually with every fifth show focused on architecture as a critical position."

For the full story, see Jen Graves' article here. I love the quote from Lead Pencil Studio's Daniel Mihalyo: "Developers are potentially the new Medicis." Also appreciated are some timely statements by Mihalyo regarding 'cross-lake snootiness.'

Cheers to Open Satellite!