CoCA Seattle

info@cocaseattle.org 206.728.1980

Exhibitions Calendar Community Submissions About Sales Newsletter CoCA TV

2009 CoCA Annual

Artist's Reception, Thursday, November 19 6 - 9 pm
CoCA Ballard, 6413 Seaview Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
CoCA Belltown, 2721 First Ave. (at Clay), Seattle, WA 98121
On View Weekdays 10 am - 5 pm, November 19 - January 9, 2010

First Place: Thea Augustina Eck; Second Place: Sally Finch: Honorable Mention: Yvonne Petkus, Kim Hennessey not shown - see below

From November 19, 2009 - January 9, 2010, CoCA presents the 2009 Annual, a juried exhibition exhibiting work from emerging as well as established artists in a wide variety of visual media. Artists in any region and any country were welcome to submit, and entries were received from 7 countries and 35 states. The exhibit showcases the ways in which contemporary artists, regardless of their location, share similar aesthetic concerns and conceptual approaches in a world of increasingly dramatic flux.

CoCA has presented the Annual since 1989, each time inviting an independent juror to select the work from among the entries received. For this year's 20th anniversary of the show, CoCA is proud to have Jess Van Nostrand as juror.

Jess Van Nostrand is Exhibitions Curator at Cornish College of the Arts and author of numerous essays and articles about the arts including the popular "Artists' Guide to Seattle" published by the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau. She holds a BA in Art History from The George Washington University and an MA in Art History from Richmond University, London. Van Nostrand is a portfolio instructor for the Artist Trust EDGE program, and founder of the art program at Joe Bar for emerging artists. She currently serves as Chair of the Seattle alliance of ArtTable, the national organization for women leaders. Curating in Seattle since 2003, she has developed an emphasis on dialogue between artists from the Northwest and other cities.

Click here for a gallery of all of the finalists...

Haris Purnomo: Visual Poetry

Artist's Reception, Tuesday, October 13 6 - 9 pm
CoCA Ballard, 6413 Seaview Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
On View Weekdays 10 am - 5 pm, September 13 - November 14, 2009
AND
CoCA Belltown, 2721 First Ave. (at Clay), Seattle, WA 98121

On View 24 hours every day, September 14 - November 14, 2008

live webcast of Belltown unveiling at 8:30 Tuesday, September 13.

CoCA, Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art, is pleased to introduce the work of acclaimed Indonesian artist Haris Purnomo to the Pacific Northwest.

A graduate of Sekolah Tinggi Seni Rupa College of Fine art, Yogyakarta, Purnomo recently re-emerged, more than 30 years after shaking up the Jakarta art scene with the rebellious Kepribadian Apa ("Pipa") art movement.

Tattooed babies pervade the content of Purmono's work. "Each Indonesian child, newly born, carries the burden and debts of our past deeds", he says. "…a baby, whoever its parents are, is a new human being, so that we can invest our hopes in children. I am perhaps too pessimistic to expect anything from 'old human beings'. There is something good in thinking a thief getting caught and sent to jail is important, but it is more significant to ensure that children will not become thieves".

After showing in New York and Miami last year, Purmono returned to his native Indonesia with a tour-de-force show this year at Bentara Budaya in Jakarta, featuring the same paintings and the monumental installation of 100 life-size babies that CoCA now brings to Seattle.

CoCA Curator, Joseph Roberts met Purmono at the Art Basel/Miami fairs last December. In his essay for the catalogue that accompanies the shows in both Jakarta and Seattle, CoCA Curator Joseph Roberts admits, "I was totally unprepared for what I saw. I had neither the benefit nor curse of context. A series of life size babies floating like cocoons in a spider web if viewed from afar; more like sublime spirits viewed at closer range…. I don't know whether I should be afraid of or in love with Haris Purmono's work - and I am afraid to ask; but I do, over and over again. Purmono's work is beautifully haunting and strangely timeless." Roberts decided that day in Miami that he had to bring this work to Seattle. With the kind help of Fanny Pratjojo, of Jakarta based FPA Gallery, now he has.

This show consists of paintings at CoCA Ballard, and a sculpture installation at CoCA Belltown. Click here for more information...

Across the Divide: Contemporary Art from the Scablands and Beyond

Artist's Reception, September 17, 6 - 10 pm
CoCA Ballard, 6413 Seaview Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
On View Weekdays 10 am - 5 pm, September 17 - October 10, 2009
AND
CoCA Belltown, 2721 First Ave. (at Clay), Seattle, WA 98121

On View 24 hours every day, September 17 - October 4, 2008

free shuttle between galleries opening night only

It's been 15 years since a prominent art critic wrote that eastern Washington artists drew their inspiration from a sense of isolation (Regina Hacket, Seattle P-I, November 3, 1995). And while Seattle now has galleries associated with eastern Washington artists (PUNCH), large group shows that survey both academic and non-academic artist in a wide variety of media are few and far between.

Artists from the "dry side" no longer feel the same sense of isolation in our age of instant communication, yet the physical characteristics of the landscape remain unchanged. Today their inspiration draws from far more than their natural surrounds and, as this exhibit clarifies, they are just as experimental and equally inclined toward abstraction as are their west-side colleagues.

Curated by David Francis and Jodie Nelson. Two Eastern Washington artists, Nicklous Meisel and Michelle Acuff, present site-specific installations at our Belltown Gallery, curated by Derin Smith.

See Michael Upchurch's review in the Seattle Times...

Artists include: Michelle Acuff (Walla Walla), Kevin Bell (Missoula), Michelle Forsyth (Pullman), Kevin Haas (Pullman), Ryan Hardesty (Spokane), Chris Ireland (Pullman), Yuko Ishii (Riverside), Nicklous Meisel (Pullman), Megan Murphy (Spokane), Joseph Peila (Royal City), Reza Safavi (Pullman), Selene Santucci (Pullman), Mark Sherer (Stehekin), Richard Schindler (Spokane), Barbee Teasley (Leavenworth), Pedro de Valdivia (Pasco), and Steve Ward (Twisp).

2009 East | West Emerging Artist Exchange

On display at CoCA Ballard, August 10 - September 12, 2009
Curators: Joe Roberts | Christina Connett

Artist's Reception | Panel Discussion: Thursday, August 13, 4 - 9 pm
Panel: Matthew Kangas | Mike Sweney | Dianne Elliot
Key Challenges | Opportunities Confronting Emerging Artists Today
CoCA Ballard, 6413 Seaview Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107

In a groundbreaking exchange of art + ideas between recent BFA and MFA graduates, CoCA will showcase the work of 28 emerging artists form East and West coast schools including Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), University of Washington and Cornish.

Participating artists are recent BFA and MFA graduates, and works presented span an array of media. The exhibition opens with an artist's reception on Thursday, August 13th, 4-9pm at CoCA's Ballard gallery and runs through September 11th. The opening reception will feature a panel discussion by members of the local arts community (including gallery directors, curators, collectors, art consultants, artists, and critics) on the opportunities and challenges confronting emerging artists today.

YELLOW:
an Installation at COCA Belltown
by Mike (Mikela) Naylor

Showing through July 18, 2009

Artist Reception: Thurday, June 11, 7-9pm, above the gallery at Avenue One.

Come Celebrate Summer!

June is Solstice month, and I have filled a space with YELLOW!

MOMOKO Sudo

Subjective Truth – What You See Is What It Is

On display at CoCA Ballard July 8 - August 8, 2009

Momoko Sudo blends Japanese aesthetics with contemporary abstraction.

In her LineScaping series, Momoko hand paints or draws a series of beautifully austere lines. They seem to manifest Zen meditation. Perhaps her “LineScaping” is inspired by the manner in which landscapes are depicted on topographical charts. But the paintings are so clean and abstracted that they become Op Art that at once floats on and sometimes pop out of the painting’s surface. Are the lines really moving?

Also on view are Momoko’s new experiments with resin collages that create unique images using familiar found objects. Her quest is to whet the viewer’s imagination -to invite the viewer to “see” familiar things in her work that does not, in fact, exist. Momoko enjoys playing with the abstract line between understanding and seeing.

For more on MOMOKO visit http://www.momokosudo.com/

Heaven and Earth

Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at Carkeek Park

June 26 - September, 2009
Opening Saturday, June 27, 2009, 3pm-5pm at the Environmental Learning Center

In collaboration with the Carkeek Park Advisory Council, Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Department of Neighborhoods, and the Associated Recreational Council, CoCA will present an exhibition of temporary, outdoor sculptural installations in Carkeek Park organized around the theme of “Heaven and Earth,” from June 26 - August 10, 2009 (held over through Labor Day, September 7).

The sponsors asked artists for their interpretations of art and nature in a world of change.

Our parks are implicitly havens (“heavens”) where we go to relax, recreate, and, in Carkeek's case especially, walk through the woods. Carkeek is widely considered one of Seattle's premier urban forests...Sunset Magazine recently named it #3 among America's top 10 urban parks.

The artwork was constructed of primarily natural materials and was designed to have minimal impact on the park -- either decomposing organically, leaving “no trace” -- or, when removed at the end of the display period, leaving the park in essentially the same condition it was prior to installation.

Participating artists included Barbara De Pirro, Miguel Edwards, Aaron Haba, Meredith Hall and Vaughn Bell, Todd Lawson, Julie Lindell, Peppé, Stephen Rock, Gerry Stecca, Kristen Tollefson, and Sylwia Tur.

curated by David Francis

For more information, visit www.heavenandearthexhibition.org

Tracy Boyd: Seattle Sketches

At CoCA Ballard

May 26 - July 6, 2009
Opening Thursday, June 11, 2009, 6pm-9pm

Like many emerging artists, Seattle figurative painter, Tracy Boyd, longs to understand key "art scene" people. Who are they, really? What do they do, and what motivates them? She seeks this understanding because she feels these people are in the way of her artistic journey.

In this series, Boyd depicts Northwest art figures in a manner she imagines will expose aspects of the person beneath the persona. Sometimes using unlikely tools, Boyd loosely applies heavy oil paint in a manner that seems to sculpt her subjects. She often adds graphic elements to the canvas that leave the viewer with more questions than answers. She does this to leave -or perhaps create- ambiguity that emulates people's lives.

-JCR

For more on Tracy Boyd visit http://www.boyd-art.com/

Kyle Cook: New Work

At CoCA Belltown

May 2 - May 31, 2009

Artist Reception: Friday, May 15

Through a variety of layering and mark making, the abstract figures of Kyle Cook's luscious oil paintings pulse and squirm to life.

Of his work, Kyle states, "Throughout my process, I distribute my impulses between the considered, responsive actions rooted in preconception and the involuntary actions ensuing from the suspension of prejudice… I aim to engage the viewer with a physical experience of moving through the painting and provide a visual solution alluding to narratives and symbols accessed in the imagination just beyond the surface of the painting."

Kyle Cook was born in Albuquerque, NM. In 2001, he received an MA degree from Western Carolina University, and in 2004, he received an MFA degree from Boston University. He has recently moved to Seattle from Brooklyn.

TAKAKO: Sarah T. Skinner

At CoCA Ballard

April 14 - May 24, 2009
Opening Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6pm-9pm

Seattle based photographer, Sarah Skinner, relies on intuition, chance and her rubbernecking Lensbaby to capture images of her laptop screen from odd angles as she anonymously surfs the web.

The images are voyeuristic, as though peering through a neighbor's window from behind a tree at night; screwing artistic etiquette, their content is blatantly ripped off the Internet.

Skinner did not want to recognize anyone, to rewind, re-shoot, question, ponder or reflect on why or when she clicked the shutter. She sought out weird, obscure images that evoked her blood, memory and imagination. These images became fodder used to create triptych narratives that are fraught with ambiguity and that no logical or creative mind can rationalize.

"Yet, you will try", she says, "because that what humans do".

Although not the genesis of this body of work, Skinner gives a nod to Shepard Farley in support of his pending litigation with the Associated Press.

Black History Month: Visions of Negritude

At CoCA Belltown

February 9 - March 8, 2009

Artist Reception: February 11, 7-9pm.

Prominent art critic and curator Matthew Kangas has selected four artists to explore the legendary 20th-century idea of Africa and the African diaspora: Negritude. Originated by the Senegalese poet and politician Leopold Sedor Senghor (later president of Senegal) in the 1920s, Negritude is a fluid concept defined by the locale and context of the writer or, in this case, artist, in question.

Richard Ewan, Ronald Hall, Annie Tolliver and James "Buddy" Snipes offer four distinct visions of race and its cultural expressions. Ewan comes from an Anglo-Caribbean background, was born in London, and now lives in LA. Hall grew up and was educated in Pennsylvania where he has been honored with a solo museum show at the Susquehanna Art Museum as well as one-person exhibitions in Alaska and Ireland. Annie Tolliver and James "Buddy" Snipes are from the American Deep South. Their untutored visionary art deals with ambiguous stereotypes of African-Americans and their positions as cross-cultural influences.

Jules Frazier: WANTED

At CoCA Ballard

March 10 - April 11, 2009

Opening Wednesday, March 11 , 6pm - 9pm

Now in her third decade of documenting the American Rodeo Queen as a unique element of western landscape, Seattle based photographer, Jules Frazier, offers an intimate, almost voyeuristic view of skin-tight outfits, larger than life hair and cowgirl colors.

Since the vintage -retro style persists even today viewers cannot easily date the photographs or the women they depict. We are left wondering: how should we read these women; how do they perceive themselves; how are they perceived by those who travel the rodeo circuit; who are they and what makes them uniquely American?

Frazier's images have evolved from journalistic to staged portraits juxtaposed among vintage props, not unlike Edward Curtis's evolution with Native American images a century ago. As a former Rodeo Queen herself, Jules Frazier has an intimate point of view; with her images, she invites us for a ride that reveals the spirit, dedication, strength and humor of the Rodeo Queen, as well as the culture of the sport.

Artist's website: www.julesfrazier.com

All Along the Western Front

Tyler Kohlhoff

At CoCA Ballard

January 15, 2009 through March 8, 2009

Opening Reception: January 15, 5pm-7pm
Closing Celebration: February 20, 6pm-9pm
Performance by Hair Envelope, Tin Can Tobacco Band

In an installation which complicates our sense of place and comfort in the American West, emerging artist Tyler Kohlhoff presents All Along the Western Front, an engaging and challenging meditation on power, landscape, and modern material culture.

Navigating the vacant habitats of the American West, his images mounted to large-scale found fluorescent light fixtures, glow with an eerie seduction. Clustered on the walls by geographic location and organized to mimic an oversized circuit the exhibit reflects the tension and uncertainty of a movement to identify, inhabit and conquer this topographical other.

Kohlhoff presents a physical and psychological journey; confronting the complexities and contradictions of living in a place one does not entirely understand.

Artist's website: www.tylerkohlhoff.com
Band's websites: www.hairenvelope.com, www.myspace.com/tincantobaccoband

New Work

Marc Lindsay

At CoCA Belltown

January 19, 2009 through February 9, 2009

Opening Reception: January 19, 7pm-9pm

A new collection of recently completed works on alumium, stainless, copper, acrylic, and other media.

Marc's work travels across all media and ranges from digital photography to sculpture and painting. He often deploys a printing technique to develop lines with texture which he subsequently applies to various surfaces (metal, glass, canvas). With a series of primal images that verges on 'scribbling', he has developed an 'alphabet' of characters which he recently traced back to his earliest childhood drawings.

Marc's work has been widely exhibited in the Seattle area, but not for some time. The artist is currently returning from a hiatus due to blindness. Lindsay has recovered a small percentage of vision in his right eye, and has re-engaged in the creation of art in his Portland studio with much gusto.

Design and Development by Jessie Orvidas and Peter Noonan