Past Participants

—————- CHINATOWN / INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT —————-

Derek Erdman

666 South Jackson Street, through January 1, 2013

: A free Carol Channing for every Seattleite

Derek is an artist, curator, writer, illustrator, and provacateur in Seattle whose work has been seen in The Stranger, the Chicago Reader, on MTV, and in dozens of other outlets. His International House of Painting is a contemporary gallery for emerging artists (see website for current hours and programming).

Basic Water Requirement

Gregg Schlanger

505 5th Avenue South, through December 21, 2012

sockeye.org

Gregg’s work examines the current data on how much water people use in various countries around the world, and presents that data in sculptural form. Splashing pools of water, dozens of bottles, cast resin houses, and melting ice are as much a visual feast as an intellectual one.

Untitled

Paul D. McKee

411 Maynard Avenue South, through December 12, 2012

pauldmckee.com

Paul’s newest work examines the fact that there are two Paul McKee’s in Seattle, both visual artists, both having installed work in the Storefronts program, both (coincidentally?) having installed work in this very window.

SOIL/ Timea Tihanyi
601 South King Street
March 6 – May 31, 2012
www.soilart.org / www.timeatihanyi.com

Strange Fruit
601 South King Street
In the middle of Chinatown (601 King Street), Sabree James and her eight-year-old son Jaylin James have created Strange Fruit, a lovingly sweet homage to the song of the same name. Their project is part art gallery, part farmer’s market, part arts-and-crafts station, with a little live performance venue thrown in, and a dash of oral history project.

The whole project is dedicated to “The Ancestors who had the courage to seek freedom, the free labor of African hands working in America” and features hand-made literal “strange fruits” hanging all over moss-covered branches (children can go into the space and make their own fruits).

Pete Bjordahl & Andy Graydon
409 Maynard Avenue South (above Hing Hay Park)
www.parallelpublicworks.com

Gust Burns

601 South King Street
gustburns.blogspot.com

Gust Burns is an improvising pianist and contemporary artist. He’s the director of the Seattle Improvised Music Festival, and one of the founders of Gallery 1412 on Capitol Hill.

In an obscure little storefront in Chinatown / International District, Gust will be creating a new installation comprised of a deconstructed grand piano and a completely hand- written symphonic score that he will also hand-erase.

His deconstructed piano and score installation will also become the context in which our next group will operate:

The Lady Assassins Writing Group
601 South King Street

The Ladies of the Lady Assassins Writing Group are some of the local stars of the typewritten word. Leah Balthus is the Editor in Chief of City Arts Magazine and was the founding editor of RIVET Magazine. Marya Sea Kaminsky has been named Artist of the Year by Seattle Magazine, Best Local Stage Actor by Seattle Weekly, and received a Genius Award from The Stranger. A founder of the Washington Ensemble Theatre, Marya performs around the world and teached at Cornish College of the Arts. Jessica Mooney was a regular contributor to RIVET magazine, and currently directs the HIV/AIDS Network Coordination Team at Fred Hutchinson. Kelly Igoe is a regular contributor to Seattle Magazine, Arcade Magazine, RIVET and Worldchanging.com.

The Lady Assassins plan on using the space inside of Gust Burns’ piano installation to generate new work both individually and collectively, to explore the possibilities of a permanent space for writers in Seattle, and to launch their FlashLit project (seemingly spontaneous readings in public places).

SuttonBeresCuller
504 Fifth Avenue South (The Publix Hotel)
suttonberesculler.com

John Sutton, Ben Beres and Zac Culler have been collaboratively creating work since 1999. They’ve received a Stranger Genius Award, a MacDowell Colony residency, and were the artists in residence at Consolidated Works for two years.

In the abandoned lobby of the old Publix Hotel, the trio are creating a series of installations, responding to the history of the 1928 building, the ideas of transience and impermanence embedded in the space and the artifacts found on site.

George Rodriguez
505 Fifth Avenue South
madartseattle.com/window-art-project/artists/george-rodriguez

George Rodriguez has created a suite of whimsical characters straight out of the popular imagination of the “old west.” A pair of cowboys prepare to duel with fingers cocked. An innocent bystander hides in a barrel. An undertaker and two damsels watch from the sidelines. Tumbleweeds pass by overhead.

These characters, all cast in ceramic, spring from Rodriguez’ mind and greet passers-by in the highly trafficked but mostly unknown corridor between Chinatown and Union Station, just south of Vulcan, Inc’s corporate headquarters.

Rodriguez is an emerging sculptor and installation artist, teaching at Pottery Northwest.

Julia Haack
504 Fifth Avenue South (The Publix Hotel)
December 26, 2011 – May 4, 2012
www.juliahaack.com
Julia Haack’s life-size sculpture sits in the fuzzy area between craft, design, and fine art. Neither two-dimensional nor three-dimensional, Road Map and Punch (viewed here left to right) are free-form wood inlays referencing the structures of everyday life. Haack draws from a diverse range of abstract patterns and colors for inspiration, including the skeletal forms of old barns, contemporary abstract quilts, 1970s exterior window awnings, maps, and the urban landscape. Each sculpture takes on its own shape as it is being built. Haack uses repeating, curving shapes to express arrested movement and often builds artwork up through multiple layers. Up close, the sculptures take on a textile-like quality, despite rigid materials.

Most of Haack’s newer artwork features bright color combinations to combat the current economy’s dismal condition. Haack’s bulbous bursts of color speak directly to the urban decay of this building, the once-grand, now-condemned former Publix Hotel. In an effort to limit her carbon footprint, the artist uses salvaged materials.

Kristin Tollefson

409 Maynard Avenue South (the lower space, looking onto Maynard Ave)
floraform.blogspot.com

Kristin will be creating a series of lushly ornamented, hand-crafted amalgamations of found objects, in shapes resembling giant seed pods, twigs, and pips.

Kristin says of her work, “My work explores ambiguity and tension occurring between natural and human worlds. Distinctly modern in appearance and fabricated using traditional and hand-worked techniques, my work evokes a balance of decorative lightness and detailed construction out of metal and surplus, reclaimed or found materials. Line becomes volume. Multiple simple elements convene into powerful and complex wholes. The work aims to be simultaneously scientific and poetic.”

IDEA Odyssey
666 South Jackson Street
ideaodysseygallery.com
IDEA Odyssey, or the International District Engaged in Arts Odyssey, is a collective and nonprofit gallery dedicated to nurturing and supporting visual artists of diverse cultures, primarily those of Asian, African, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander heritage, and artists who explore culture, diversity, and identity in their work. The group will be presenting a series of curated exhibits from collective members throughout the summer.

Founding artists include Carina del Rosario, SuJ’n Chon, and Minh Carrico. Launched after nearly a full year of planning, the IDEA Odyssey gallery hopes to expand beyond the time-restricted confines of the Storefronts program and launch as an independent and self-supporting entity at the end of their Storefronts residency.

Tuesday Scarves
608 Maynard Avenue South
www.tuesdayscarves.com

Tory Franklin
505 Fifth Avenue South
January 1 – June 30, 2012
www.toryfranklin.com
Tory Franklin’s epic installation tells the story of The Firebird, an obscure Russian fairy tale about a prince’s quest to capture a magical bird. The story will be told here in three parts over six months, rotating every two months.

Franklin works in a variety of media. Recently, her work has focused on visually retelling unfamiliar fairy tales. Her work, though ornate, layered, and highly stylized, retains a visual simplicity that mirrors the approachable yet intricate world of fairy tales. Work in this same series appeared in Spaceworks Tacoma in 2010 and will appear in Storefronts Auburn in 2012.

Jennifer Zwick
409 Maynard Avenue South (the lower space, looking onto Maynard Ave)
March 10 – June 28, 2012

Jenny Zwick presents “I’m Pretty Sure This is Exactly Right,” an as-above-so-below installation mirroring a typical domestic scene with its forested twin.
www.jenniferzwick.com

Dan Reeder
409 Maynard Avenue South (above Hing Hay Park)
March 1 – April 30, 2012
www.gourmetpapermache.com

—————- PIONEER SQUARE—————-

The Adventure School
610 Second Avenue
theadventureschool.com

The Adventure School describes itself as a “multi-disciplinary versatile creative agency expert in the creation of immersive environments with far-reaching competencies.” At Storefronts Seattle we describe them as part international spy ring, part traveling circus, and part 1920’s safari master-guides.

Here they present both their beautifully curated selection of hand-crafted items and “adventure gear” in the Adventure Store, as well as the Pop-Up Adventure Classroom, where you’re invited to learn about topics from Urban Mycology 101 to Getting to Know Mount Rainier. Already the group has presented a lecture on Urban Birdwatching and their Tuesday night lecture series is doing nothing but getting more popular.

“We have a collective thirst for adventure and we are eager to do more, try more, learn more and experience the best our local artistic and business communities have to offer in collaboration.”

Youth in Focus: The 20 Paces Project
604 Second Avenue
youthinfocus.org

Photo by Amber R

Founded in 1994, Youth in Focus has spent almost 20 years empowering disadvantaged teens, through photography, to experience their world in new ways and to make positive choices for their lives. In that time they’ve worked with over 2500 kids and produced
thousands of stunning images.

In the 20 Paces Project, the group’s participants will occupy a storefront window and shoot images of whatever is happening outside, on the street, within 20 paces of the front door. They’ll upload their images to a computer connected to a large screen overhead and work on the images in Photoshop as passers-by watch what they’re doing on the big screen. They’ll print out the images and create a growing exhibit of photos.

They’ll invite folks in to shoot with them, teach folks a few details about using the camera, some Photoshop tricks, etc. and print out the guests’ photos to add to the exhibit.

Ben Hirschkoff
Tashiro Kaplan Building, Southwest Windows
benhirschkoff.com

Ben will be installing a series of new painted smoke-cloud works into a new venue for Storefronts, the southwest windows of the Tashiro Kaplan building in Pioneer Square.

John Fleming
Tashiro Kaplan Building, Northwest Windows
johnflemingarchitect.com

Artist, architect, and designer John Fleming has been working with a collective of street spray-can artists to create a new body of work he calls Transforming Graffiti. The spray- can artists paint on 4’ x 8’ panels, and Fleming “slices and dices it, scrambling, and rearranging the colors and shapes into something new, as something decidedly different. No symbols, lettering, or imagery. Just color, pattern, and texture.”

The new work will be created specifically for the set of windows under, and to the west of, the 4Culture offices in the Tashiro Kaplan building in Pioneer Square.

Daniel Carrillo
604 Second Avenue
daniel-carrillo.com

In 2009 Daniel Carrillo discovered the all-but-forgotten technique of Wet Plate Collodion photography, and the Seattle arts scene hasn’t been the same since. Carrillo has been tirelessly photographing contemporary artists in a portrait project that has grown immensely, included artists, curators, critics, and appeared on the cover of The Stranger earlier this year.

Carrillo’s temporary studio, located behind the Youth in Focus gallery, will serve as the hub of the portrait project, with the ultimate goal of collecting the portraits into a published book. “Space is like gold to a photographer,” says Daniel.

Greg Boudreau
Tashiro Kaplan Building, Southwest Windows
January 15 – May 15, 2012
www.gregboudreau.com

Evan Blackwell
Tashiro Kaplan Building, Northwest Windows
Dec 26, 2011 – March 31, 2012
www.evanblackwell.com
Evan Blackwell’s installation, BOOM, focuses on the presence of tower cranes in an urban environment. Taking full advantage of a vacant space in the Tashiro Kaplan Building, the installation is comprised of 21 scaled-down tower cranes, 750 screen prints, metal studs, and reflective street glass. BOOM explores the tower crane as a symbol for urban development and the commercial real-estate market, drawing attention to the recent changes in zoning and the difficulty of preserving the character of historic spaces, specifically in the International District and Pioneer Square.

Blackwell‘s interest in cranes, construction materials, and the restructuring of urban space peaked when he witnessed massive urban development during a residency in Shanghai, China in 2009. His work examines the relationship between the built environment and the natural environment by highlighting the cycles of growth and deterioration associated with urban decay and renewal.

Art Lending Library
201 Yesler Way, Suite 200 (corner of Yesler and 2nd Ave)
March 1 – May 31, 2012
www.artlendinglibrary.net

—————- CAPITOL HILL—————-

Rene Ropas / Influence!
127 Broadway East
February 9 – May 1, 2012
www.reneropas.com

Christian French
127 Broadway East (south window)
www.christianfrench.com

—————- SOUTH LAKE UNION —————-

Chris Burnside
1000 Thomas Street, south side of the building (west window)
February 15 – August 15, 2012
www.chrisburnside.com

Maja Petric
1010 Thomas Street, south side of the building (east window)
March 1 – September 1, 2012
www.majapetric.com

Frances Nelson

333 Boren Avenue North, south side of the building (east window)

Frances Nelson is an architect and contemporary artist who has shown in Seattle, in Rhode Island, and in Florence, Italy. Using repurposed chipboard and paper, Nelson is creating a fabric-like lattice, site-specific to the South Lake Union window, that responds to the light, the street scene, and the built environment.

Frances’ work is very reflective of her background. Her training in architecture heightened her attention to material and form, and her childhood split between urban and rural Washington taught her about the relationships between the natural and the built environments. Her chipboard lattices are as much about the objects themselves as the views the openings offer through the object. They’re very pure abstract pieces – at a basic level, they’re just about light, and shape, and the shadows that those two things create when they interact.

“My inspirations for projects typically emerge from their immediate surroundings,” says the artist. “The specific openings and character of the fabric will respond to the street and neighborhood, with the intent that passers-by will look at their visual landscape through stimulated eyes.”

The Urban Sketchers

333 Boren Avenue North, south side of the building (west window)
urbansketchers.org

In 2007, Seattle Times staff artist Gabriel Campanario founded the Urban Sketchers as a Flickr group dedicated to sharing the work of people who draw urban architecture. Since then the group has expanded to include hundreds of sketchers on six continents. “Drawing a city isn’t just capturing it on paper, it’s really about getting to know it, to feel it, to make it your own,” says Nina Johansson, a Sketchers correspondent in Stockholm.

The Urban Sketchers will be installing a varied series of sketchbooks in the windows of 333 Boren, all showing Seattle’s urban landscape back to itself, in one of the most rapidly growing and changing parts of the city, South Lake Union. The sketchbooks will be rotated and pages changed regularly, offering a dynamic and changeable installation to the street.

The group will also be hosting group sketching events, starting at the windows and moving around town.

___________________________________________________________

First Round (September-November 2010)

Chauney Peck – 409 Maynard Ave S

Chris Engman – 510 Maynard Ave S

Dan Reeder – 312 Occidental Ave S

John Fleming – 409 Maynard Ave S

Ingrid Lahti – Tashiro Kaplan Building

Second Round (December 2010 -February 2011)

Alyson Piskorowski – 505 5th Avenue South

Ben Hirschkoff – Tashiro Kaplan Building, Southwest Windows

Ben Zamora & Etta Lilienthal – 409 Maynard Ave S (upper)