Five Belltown Gallery Openings on Friday 7/11

I am SO looking forward to hitting Belltown Friday night and catching the opening of five new gallery shows. I am particularly excited about the shows at the Roq, the BLVD, and the new Free Sheep Foundation space. All spaces open at 6 pm and have varying closing hours (as early as 9 pm at the Roq.)

Roq La Rue: 10th Anniversary Group Show
Showing work from 24 artists, including Mark Ryden, Femke Hiemstra, Brian Despain, Travis Louis, Scott Musgrove, Liz McGrath and Shag. I'm curious to see who will show up at this anniversary show. The sport of people-watching can get interesting here. Of course the art is always mad fab interesting too.

BLVD Gallery: “Pneumonia, Isolation, and Disorder” by Deuce 7
Deuce 7 is a graffiti artist from Minneapolis who is also part of a burgeoning underground subculture of Freight train hoppers. In 2007 Deuce7 made a trip to NYC to do graffiti and experience the Mecca of Street Art. After 2 short weeks he had taken the city by storm and was profiled in the Village Voice with the tagline “Is a guy from Minnesota the new king of New York street art?” A very impressive achievement for a previously unknown graffiti artist from the midwest in a city renowned for it’s dislike of intruding outsiders.This will be his first solo show of drawings and paintings on the West Coast.

Stylus Salon and Gallery: Group Art Show curated by Ghost Gallery
2321 Second Avenue
Five local artists are showing works here. I am not familiar with this space or any of the artists, so I can't vouch for whether this will be worth crossing the street from an art appreciation standpoint. However, the announcement for Friday's show opening promises a full bar, food, and music so if the art isn't great you can at least get a little somethin' somethin' (nosh or drink) while you stroll around the salon.

Free Sheep Foundation
3rd and Battery (24oo 3rd ave)
Friday is the first opening of this temporary space leased by the Free Sheep Foundation. The FSF(?) is headed up by the mastermind behind the Bridge Motel project and The Belmont wake: D.K Pan.

The show includes installations from ntg, garek druss, dk pan, static invasion & scntfc, karn junkinsmith, and nko, as well as a collection of "exquisite corpse" works created during a collaborative art-in of street artists and their peeps. Friday's show opening will also include musical performances by Aubrey Birdwell, Locate, and Heavy Teeth. ( Sorry, I have no idea what style of tunes to expect.)

Suite 100 Gallery: Oceanic
Suite 100 Gallery specializes in themed group shows. Expect to see a variety of artists and styles and media when you check out their monthly show. July's Oceanic show is subtitled "nautical adventures and underwater realms" and is curated by the popular artist Ninjagrl.

This gallery stays open late so I usually make it my last Belltown gallery stop of the evening before eating some yummy goodness at the Buddha Bar Thai restaurant next door. However, now that the McLeod Residence is open to all, their lounge may be the new final stop in Belltown before tripping and skipping my way home.