This Week's Highlights: April 1 - April 6, 2008

Wednesday, April 2

University of Washington - Aperture and the U of WA Library present “The Black Panthers: Making Sense of History,” photographs by Stephen Shames. During the height of the Civil Rights movement, from 1967 to 1973, photographer Stephen Shames had unprecedented access to the Black Panther Party through his close friendship with the Panthers and Bobby Seale in particular, and captured not only its public face-street demonstrations, protests, and militant armed posturing-but also unscripted behind-the-scenes moments, from private Party meetings held in its headquarters to Bobby Seale at work on his mayoral campaign in Oakland. Shames's work offers an uncommonly nuanced portrait of this dynamic social movement, during one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. history. The exhibition will be on view through May 31st in the Odegaard Library at the U of WA.

Thursday, April 3

Pioneer Square First Thursday Artwalk - Full list of openings & events coming soon!

Friday, April 4

Northwest Film Forum - “Zidane” screening. Acclaimed contemporary artists and filmmakers Douglas Gordon (24 HOUR PSYCHO) and Philippe Parreno have taken a unusual approach in creating this film portrait of soccer superstar Zinédine Zidane. They focused seventeen synchronized 35mm and HD cameras (equipped with the most powerful zoom lenses ever made) solely on him for the entirety of a soccer match from the first kick of the ball to the final whistle. The result of this 360-degree, real-time portrait is a startling connection to the sensations, the psychology and the body of the athlete. The film's brilliant sound design captures the ebb and flow of the stadium crowd (one clue to the game's activity off-screen), and incorporates an original score by the band Mogwai that emphasizes the calm intensity of the player (and the sport.) “Zidane” will be showing at the Northwest Film Forum Friday - Sunday, April 4-6, at 7:15 and 9:15 pm. Sunday night screenings to be introduced by Henry Art Gallery Associate Curator Sara Krajewski. Tickets $5/NWFF and Henry Art Gallery members, $6/children and seniors, $8.50/general. Click here for tickets.


McLeod Residence - Opening reception for “Salvage” a site specific installation by Diana Falchuk that incorporates the gallery and lounge's signature wallpaper--and cake icing. Salvage opens with a reception April 4 from 5-9pm and will be exhibited through May 31. Also opening on April 4 is a skatedeck series curated by Kristen Rask of Schmancy and Kurt Barbee of 5280 Lasers; and Wildflowers, a series of digitally-altered Holga photographs by Jenene Chesbrough.


University of Washington - The Henry Art Gallery presents an artist lecture by “Josiah McElheny.” Josiah McElheny makes installations and discrete sculptures that explore crucial moments in the development of modernity, its visual and theoretical undercurrents. His interest in the history of modern science finds its fullest expression in The Last Scattering Surface, a vivid, tangible model of the Big Bang. In celebration of the exhibition’s opening, McElheny will discuss The Last Scattering Surface and the relationships between concepts such as history, fiction, and memory at play in his work. 7 pm in Kane Hall, Room 120. $8 Henry members / $12 General Admission / $10 Students and Seniors. Click here for tickets.

Photographic Center Northwest - “Crossing the Water” exhibition reception and book signing. Local artists, Claire Garoutte and Anneke Wambaugh, bring years of experience and research to this exhibition. Their evocative photographs not only draw the viewer into a world rarely witnessed by outsiders, they also offer viewers an unprecedented opportunity to better understand the diversity of Afro-Cuban religious traditions. This deeply affecting visual document encourages its audience to look beyond stereotypical depictions of a religious culture and a nation that have so often been misrepresented and misunderstood. Garoutte is Assistant Professor of Photography at Seattle University. Her work has appeared in exhibits in the United States and abroad. Wambaugh is an award-winning photographer and an independent scholar of African and Afro-Caribbean ritual art who has worked extensively in Haiti and Cuba. Reception 6-8 pm. Exhibition runs through April 29, 2008.

© Claire Garoutte and Anneke Wambaugh. "Santiago Castañeda Vera seated amid his godchildren"

Saturday, April 5

Henry Art Gallery - “Josiah McElheny: The Last Scattering Surface” exhibition opens. Josiah McElheny has grafted a distinguished art career out of two far-flung strands of contemporary art practice: conceptual art and the studio glass movement. Deploying the most sophisticated and virtuoso glass-working techniques, he makes installations and discrete sculptures that explore crucial moments in the development of modernity, its visual and theoretical undercurrents. Since his celebrated An Historical Anecdote about Fashion, commissioned by the Henry Art Gallery in 1999, McElheny’s work has focused primarily on comparing art to the history of the 20th century. His interest in the history of modern science finds its fullest expression in The Last Scattering Surface. Working with astrophysicists at Ohio State University over several years, McElheny has created a vivid tangible model of the Big Bang, the explosion postulated to represent the beginnings of organic matter. Characteristically the form also quotes visual culture, specifically the gigantic chandeliers of New York’s arch-modern performance space, Lincoln Center. April 5 – July 13, 2008.