Snohomish sculptor Paul Vexler continues to combine math with art. His most recent and expansive hybrid of art consists of five large and airy geometric shapes of cedar and other wood, precisely crafted with four, six, eight, 12 and 20 sides and named after Greek philosopher Plato.
Vexler also created a large exterior installation for the show. These works are on display through Oct. 24 at Russell Day Gallery on the Everett Community College campus, 2000 Tower St. The show includes a gallery walk-through by Vexler at 3 p.m. Thursday, followed by a lecture in EvCC’s Baker Hall.
In July, Vexler installed three large helix structures from the ceiling of EvCC’s Whitehorse Hall as part of the campus loaned sculpture program. The helixes combine several hundred pieces of reclaimed wood. The motorized helixes rotate about one revolution per minute and are part of Vexler’s theme of “Investigation of Position in Time.” The work is open to the public in Whitehorse Hall.
Vexler is a full-time artist who works on his projects from his Machias studio. He began his career as a high school art teacher but also founded a leading high-end door and window company in Everett, Quantum Windows and Doors Inc.
The art of advertising: The famous marketing duo the Hatch brothers once said that “advertising without posters is like fishing without worms.” That adage becomes crystal clear in a refreshingly retro exhibition called “American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print.”
The show opens Saturday and runs through July 16 at Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, 325 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle.
Opening day includes music and an interactive art experience. From 1 to 2 p.m. performer Michael Vermillion and his band will entertain with a brand of dark, rootsy country and rock ‘n’ roll. Also, a letterpress workshop in EMP’s learning labs area will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. so participants can create their own letterpress posters.
The exhibition celebrates the legacy and impact the Hatch Show Print has had on the advertising industry since its opening in 1879 when brothers Herbert H. and Charles R. Hatch in Nashville, Tenn., produced handcrafted posters with simple slogans such as “More Power, More Pep” and “Always Clean, Always Good.”
Almost 130 years later, Hatch posters still hold their own in the world of advertising, even up against digital competitors.
“We’ve survived all the changes in printing technology to become the antithesis of contemporary digital design,” said Jim Sherraden, the exhibition’s curator and chief designer at Hatch Show Print in a prepared statement.
The exhibition features 126 historical and contemporary posters and 29 hand-carved wooden blocks. For much of the 20th century, the vibrant Hatch posters were the main advertising medium for Southern entertainment such as vaudeville, opera singers, Negro League baseball games and B-movies. The exhibition includes a poster promoting a Johnny Cash concert.
Each Hatch Show Print poster is individually handcrafted and inked onto paper in a meticulous process that dates back to the 15th century. This process, known as letterpress, involves inking hand-carved wood blocks, metal photo plates and type that are then pressed onto paper to form an image, according to press material.
Lenses on the world: Photographs from artists Marian Myszkowski, Kim Tinuviel and David Freed will delight viewers with their three different takes on the world inspired by their three different muses: travel, textures and transformation.
The three photographers are grouped for a showing called “MaKiDa: Lenses on the World” starting with an artists’ reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the historic Bayview Cash Store, 5603 Bayview Road, Langley. The show runs through Oct. 19.
Travel is the muse for Myszkowski’s photography. She has been to Rome, Barcelona, Havana and Las Vegas and likes to capture that other-worldly feeling one gets when dropped into unfamiliar surroundings. Tinuviel’s work reflects abstract textures and colors printed on alternative materials, using photography as the medium. Freed’s forest walk series captures the transformation that forests undergo through the seasons and years.
Capturing the community: Woodway artist Michele Usibelli uses brilliant brush strokes and vibrant colors to capture everyday life such as detectable treats from Namma’s Candy Store in Edmonds to bikers in the Edmonds ferry line.
Usibelli’s colorful paintings feature familiar settings. Her work is inspired from the tradition of the Russian impressionists, but she balances her use of light and movement with a touch of whimsy.
Meet the artist at the show opening from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Cole Gallery &Artists’ Supplies, 107 Fifth Ave. S., Edmonds. The show will be up through Nov. 14.
At Meyer’s: Juliette Ricci is a Tacoma-based artist who uses mixed-media paintings as her diary to the world in which she shares her intimate and personal expression while offering up bold colors and a combination of text and images as “a way to ultimately bring everything together as an artist and as a human being.”
Ricci, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, is the featured artist for October at Meyer’s Café, 1700 W. Marine View Drive, Everett.
They’re so koi: For artist Joy Mattox Bezanis, koi fish evoke a feeling of gracefulness and freedom and the artist conveys those feelings in her many paintings of these beautiful swimmers.
Bezanis, who works in oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolor and mixed media, will show her koi paintings, among her other works, through November at Uncle Elisabeth’s, 1123 Pike St., Seattle.
At Solovei: “Change of Art” is the title of the October exhibit at the Solovei Art Gallery, 2804 Grand Ave., Everett, where the newer more abstract watercolors of Marysville artist and art teacher Art Dujardin will be showcased.
Dujardin has been known for his use of rich, saturated colors, creamy light creating warm landscapes. His newer work includes more abstract paintings that show the artist moving away from common subjects into morphing shapes and delving more into his imagination.
Anniversary exhibit: “Latvian Art: Past and Present” is on view starting Tuesday at Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th St., Seattle. The exhibit will include about 40 oil paintings, on loan from private collections, that represent Latvia’s early period from 1900 through 1945, and the post-1945 period including current works by Latvian-American artists. The show is on view through Nov. 9.
This will be the first time all of the works have been exhibited in the Northwest as a group. Latvians this year are commemorating their 90th anniversary of independence, declared in November 1918.
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