By Matthew Kangas
Special to The Seattle Times

	John Ryczek's "Superfriends 3."

Since it has historically been a high-profile showcase for new regional talent, it's no surprise that this year's 71st Northwest Annual once again raises controversial issues, as the best of contemporary art should. Visitors to the Center on Contemporary Art will want to sort out the wheat from the chaff and decide for themselves about this year's version.

This once-venerable juried survey began with the earliest incarnation of the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Fine Arts Society, in 1914, and continued with brief interruptions at SAM until 1975, when modern-art curator Charles Cowles junked it. Since the Center on Contemporary Art resuscitated the annual in 1989, the results have gone from excellent to good to bad to worse.

In this edition, photography, painting and sculpture dominate the 45 works on view by 28 artists, with an emphasis on sex and violence. Artists hail from six states including, for the first time, Florida, Illinois and California.

Hugh Lentz of Olympia, who was one of five prizewinners in the 2001 Northwest Annual, is also this year's first-prize winner. He will get a solo show at next year's annual.

Exhibit review "71st Northwest Annual," 2-8 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, through Nov. 19, Center on Contemporary Art, 1429 11th Ave., Seattle; $5 suggested donation, free for members (206-728-1980).

Even though more than 450 entries at $25 each were submitted, there are no cash prizes for the winners this year. According to CoCA director Don Hudgins, the money will go to pay for the expenses of this year's show, as well as to cover next year's.

Many of the young artists selected showed an interest in video, digital photography, consumer culture, popular entertainment — and sex. At the high-toned end of this trough is Claire Johnson's sensitive, tattooed blonde in the bath, a small oil. Lentz weighs down the lower end with a fuzzy-focus, staged scene of two men fighting over a teenage girl. Greg Lukens' "Challenge of Accepting Poetry" (2002) slips in masturbation, another pseudo-shocking lapse of taste.

Esther Luittikhuizen, the juror of the show and an ex-dealer, commented in an interview on the sex theme, "I saw the presence of sex as much more humorous. These were picked for their humor. I think the representation of sexual imagery is pretty proportionally tame compared to what I looked at and eliminated."

Richard Hutter's collage painting of two truncated pyramids, "Offering."

That said, viewers will pick through the sleazy stuff to find their own treasures. For instance, John Ryczek's Batman and Superman tribute, "Superfriends 3" (2003), is a big, pink-on-pink silhouette image that is witty and beautiful. Or try Richard Hutter's collage painting of two truncated pyramids, "Offering" (2001). And last year's winner, Lisa Liedgren, declined the winner's solo CoCA show this year (she shows at James Harris) but kindly sent along a big print, "Horizontal/Vertical White" (2003), in her signature grid-and-dot style.

A few enigmatic sculptures round out one of the smallest Northwest Annuals ever. Red-glazed porcelain step shapes by Yuki Nakamura are quietly compelling as are two other wall-mounted works by Elizabeth Mead. Strangest and most beautiful of all is Junko Iijima's "Object Study: Group 2" (2002). Her pastel-flocked earthenware mouse-head shapes correspond with Nakamura's geometric red steps.