The Strange Coupling 2019 Pairings Are Announced at The Jake

Posted on March 13, 2019, 9:57 am
2 mins

Slide

Last week, The Jacob Lawrence Gallery announced the lineup of Strange Coupling 2019. This event often results on works as odd as the name suggests; a working artist is paired with a student artist, and the two collaborate on a piece (or two). The results are then given an exhibition together, making for a refreshingly odd display.

For avid art viewers, seeing the fruits of collaboration may be less about the physical result and more about seeing traces of the process. How did these minds bump against each other? Comparing with their solo work, what is recognizable and what isn’t?

The participants themselves are learning from each other. (Sometimes it means learning what they absolutely don’t want to do. That’s just as important as knowing what one wants.) The best results are things that they could never have made on their own, but also couldn’t have been made without them. Whether those results are a beautiful hybrid or a monstrous chimera is in the eye of the beholder.

At the very least, the exhibit is usually a sight to behold. Here are this year’s participants, with students on the left and working artists on the right.

Strange Coupling 2019 Artists

Elizabeth Calvillo + Sol Hashemi
Olivia Hagan + Cicelia Ross-Gotta
Ren Nguyen + Ben Gale-Schreck
Jolynn Hsieh + Taylor Hanigosky
Jules Travis, Eurie Dessie + Andualem Wolde
Nahom Ghimay + Devon Hale
Jacob Nordberg + Philippe Hyojung Kim
Shadrak Musafiri + Kristen Ramirez

The show will be juried by Chieko Phillips, Heritage Lead at 4Culture, and Shamim M. Momin, Senior Curator at the Henry Art Gallery. The exhibition’s location and date are TBD. It will certainly end up on our event calendar when we know more, though.

Featured image by Jin Park, courtesy of Jacob Lawrence Gallery.

T.s. Flock is a writer and arts critic based in Seattle and co-founder of Vanguard Seattle.