Suite 100 Gallery to Move Next to Roq La Rue

Suite 100 Gallery is moving 1 block north and next to Roq La Rue Gallery, in the space lately vacated by BLVD Gallery. The first show in the new space will open January 9th, as part of the monthly Belltown artwalk.

Even though it is only a one block move, it's a good one. No longer will we need to weave our way through clusters of smokers and clumps of pan handlers which gather on the sidewalk one block south -- a block with Mama's Mexican Kitchen, Lava Lounge, Bad Juju Bar, Noodle Ranch, Shorty's, and Buddha Bar between Roq La Rue and the starter location for the Suite 100 gallery.

The new gallery space is two to three times larger in square footage than the old Suite 100 space, so curators will need to step up their game to use it to their advantage. I hope they consider creating a few dividers to break up the wide open space; the BLVD gallery always felt a little too open. (Picture a large living room where all the furniture is anchored against a wall. Would you want to stay very long? )

The first show in the new space looks promising. "Local Aesthetic" will feature artwork from three local artists: Greg Boudreau, Ryan Molenkamp and Troy Gua.

Starter location, buh-bye


New space, hello-o-o-o

(Not a great picture, but the only exterior shot I have.)

Belltown gets a Sloth Bear for the Holidays

Check out Free Sheep Foundation during the month of December to visit a sloth bear. This is not a prank. A living, breathing sloth bear is staying in Belltown before taking up permanent residence at Woodland Park zoo.

Pedestrians and animal enthusiasts to the corner of 3rd and Battery in Belltown can view Toshi, a four year old, 1,200 pound Japanese sloth bear from Hokkaido Island, Japan. Toshi was raised in captivity and is very comfortable around humans. Safe inside an adapted storefront, Toshi can be viewed throughout the day as she eats, plays and slumbers with her favorite toy doll Benji.

Toshi comes to Seattle from the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in Hokkaido, Japan. I trust the bear experts at Kushiro are sure about Toshi's gender, unlike these polar bears.

This exhibit is brought to you by Zoo to You Foundation, Woodland Park Zoo, Free Sheep Foundation and PDL.

Now at Blvd Gallery: Gremlins and Mogwai Terror by 179

JeanineAnderson

The eclectic collection of works at the Blvd Gallery this month include this asian-influenced piece by artist OneSevenNine (179).

I first saw 179's work on the Seattle Georgetown graffiti wall in December, 2007. OneSevenNine's style is consistent, but also showing good artistic development: compare this Gremins piece to the koi on the Georgetown wall. OneSevenNine's flair for the asian style and color palette creates images which take common asian architectural elements and turns them into gently affectionate figures. The Gremlin's piece is a cleaner image and more mature understanding of line, without loss of faint irony seen in earlier work.

Several other pieces at Blvd Gallery are worth a look-see if you are in the Belltown neighborhood. I particularly liked Julio Guerrero's collage "Día de los Muertos," located in the back left corner of the gallery. This is Julio's first gallery show.

The Fanatic show runs through November 8th.

Roq La Rue launches new show and new website

After taking a month off to remodel the gallery, re-work the website, and travel to Europe, Roq La Rue's Kristen Anderson is once again bringing Pop Surrealism art to Belltown. The September show opens tonight and features new work by robot-loving Brian Despain and by visually-apocalyptic social commentator Victor Castillo.

September 2008 Opening:
Friday, September 12
6pm - 9pm
Detail of Detpain's "They Talked of Tin" (image from Roq La Rue)

Robert Zverina's Autobioanthropolography

Get yourself to the McLeod Residence and check out Robert Zverina's show "memory (w)hole." Trust me: it is fascinating, and you'll want to go back again to see more. What is so compelling?

Autobioanthropology is a word made up by Robert Z: autobiography + anthropology.

Robert Zverina's been creating mini-films with a digital pocket camera since Feb 2003. He's compiled the best of the short clips into 24 hours of video documentary of ordinary life. Clips range from 4 seconds to 30 seconds, the equipment's maximum recording time. The word autobioanthropolograhy is apt.

The video compilation is mesmerizing: you don't know how long each clip lasts and you have no idea what the next subject will be. A cat? A street scene? Making a purchase? Riding a train?
The briefness of each segment, punctuated with a 5-second empty interval between each, leaves you wanting just a little bit more -- yet also happily anticipating the next segment. Channel surfing ordinary life, if you will.

I watched about 20 minutes of the compilation at the show's opening last Friday. I plan to return to see more, and I'll likely also buy the DVD ($30) and play it on the TV when guests are over.

The second installation by Robert Zverina at the McLeod is 572 Pictures of the Day, which wallpapers the front gallery room. These are prints of online photo/text postings, from pre-blog time to present. He's been blogging before there was such a thing as blogging. No fancy blog s/w for this fella. Every page is hand-coded. (Hard core geek.)

The artist's statement on the memory (w)hole show:
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, history is constantly rewritten, with the old versions being tossed into the "memory hole"--an incinerator. memory (w)hole is a play on words that implies we inhabit a space between total recall and utter amnesia. This exhibit presents the largest compilation of Robert Zverina Short Films to date, with more than 24 hours of non-repeating microdocumentaries cycling chronologically in a comfortable cinema setting. In an adjacent gallery, 572 Picture of the Day web page printouts line the walls from floor to ceiling to form an "exploded book," a grand gesture in the futile struggle against forgetting.

Just for reading this far, I'll throw in a few fun facts about Robert Z:

• He's a low-fi DJ: he plays 45s on a portable turntable


• He's getting married in August in the country. Back country. He and the wife are having a block party/reception in the Fremont neighborhood to celebrate nups the following week.

Memory w(hole) runs at the McLeod Residence through the end of September.

Here's the dude himself taking a picture of me taking his picture. Hmmm. Maybe I'll be in something.