We do love a good group exhibit, and there are some stellar ones at Seattle Art Fair 2017. We also love getting a focused selection of works by a single artist. Get to know the work of these six artists who got a solo showing at the booths this year. These choices all have at least one thing in common: seeing a still image of them online diminishes their effect beyond recognition. You have to see these in person.
Sarah McRae Morton at Foster/White (Booth C21)
Sarah McRae Morton had a fantastic and successful debut at Foster/White last December, and this year the gallery has devoted their entire booth to her paintings. Morton works large, and draws on classic paintings, including American masterworks by Leutze and Hicks. She reworks familiar elements in her fluid brushwork and muted palette, adding in personal symbolism and narrative. The results are utterly dreamy. Preview the works online.
Stephen Antonakos at Bookstein Projects (Booth B16)
Sculptor Stephen Antonakos passed away in 2013, and it’s increasingly rare to see a group of available works from the artist. Bookstein Projects has created a gorgeous display of his works, with some of his geometric neon and wood sculptures lined up on the walls, and some stellar colored pencil drawings tucked in nook behind the table. The sculptures may be more prominent, but don’t miss those flat works! Preview the works online.
Anne Lilly at Sponder Gallery (Booth C26)
The whole of Sponder Gallery‘s booth is dancing with the stainless steel kinetic works of Anne Lilly. I love the color choice of the walls and white pedestals, which really set off the spindly, shining sculptures and they gently sway and turn. It’s especially silly to preview Lilly’s works online when you can’t see them in action, but here’s the link anyways!
Bonus round: For more mesmerizing movement, pop into the dark room at projects+gallery (B24) across the aisle and see Bill Smith‘s Spherohedron
Tracey Snelling at Krupic Kersting || KUK (Booth E13)
Tracy Snelling is a world builder. She works in miniature, creating small dioramas of contemporary living spaces, and then assembles them into giant clusters. Things are always a little askew, even a touch lurid (especially the lighting). Whole stories may form in your head as you peer into these little private dwellings. You can see a dozen of them grouped together at Krupic Kersting || KUK‘s booth. Preview the works online.
Bonus round: See another great booth dedicated to one artist, Rebecca Farr, next door at Klowden Mann, Booth E14.
“12 Rooms,” by Tracy Snelling. Image courtesy of Krupic Kersting.
Matsubara Ken at MA2 Gallery (Booth E10)
Matsubara Ken‘s lyrical video works are set in singing bowls, projected into books, or set in customized, crystal-like screens. MA2 Gallery has created an absolutely stunning display of them. Several of his bowls are set on the floor, and peering down one sees vases, statues and other fragile objects fall through a void to shatter…and then recompose and float upwards in a never ending loop. The very position it puts one in to view the works (head bowed) invites meditation and reverence…much as the singing bowls were originally intended to do. See stills of the works online.
John Grade at Davidson Galleries (Booth B26)
John Grade‘s most famous work is his monumental Middle Fork, now hanging in Seattle Art Museum‘s Brotman Forum. Obviously, nothing even remotely that large will fit in Davidson Galleries‘ booth. Instead, you can put on some goggles and see an augmented reality representation of a monumental Grade sculpture in the surrounding space. Of course, there are some physical pieces, too, ranging from small to not-so-small. (And I won’t even bother sharing the link to the preview here. Just go.)
Additional shout-outs for super solo shows: Claire Anna Baker at Moskowitz Bayse (Booth B15) and Michelle Grabner at Upfor (Booth B1). See them, too!
Featured image: Stephen Antonakos at Bookstein Projects at Seattle Art Fair 2017. Image courtesy of Bookstein Projects.
