Seattle Art Museum & Olympic Sculpture Park

I am making my way back to Oahu after this June’s intensive residency and am currently visiting my sister in Seattle. Yesterday, we had a chance to visit the Seattle Art Museum. The exhibition titled “Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection” was incredible. The canvases were breathtaking, dizzying, and rich with storytelling symbols passed on through a culture that is believed to have originated as early as 50,000 years ago. Notes from Laurel Spark’s lecture during the June residency on “Abstraction and Meaning” resurfaced in my mind. What appears remarkably modern at first is in fact directly rooted in an ancient, dynamic, and abstract visual language.   Check out: Kutungka Napanangka (Old Woman Dreaming), 2004 http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/ancestralmodern/ 

As a side, in the contemporary wing of the SAM, I also enjoyed viewing the new acquisition of Reneke Dijkstra’s matador portraits. Three male (presumably heroic) subjects were photographed not in the traditional stadium but against an unassuming beige wall appearing vulnerable and fatigued.
Check out: Rineke Dijkstra Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, May 8, 1994 

We also had the opportunity to browse the Olympic Sculpture Park. It is definitely worth a visit to experience this outdoor space filled with large sculpture against the scenic backdrop of the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains. Artists featured include Richard Serra, Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, Ellsworth Kelly, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Mark Dion, Teresita Fernández, Roy McMakin, Louise Nevelson, Roxy Paine, Beverly Pepper, Tony Smith, and George Rickey. Be sure to check it out if you are ever in Seattle! http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?emu_action=collection&collection=6096&collectionname=WEB.Olympic%20Sculpture%20Park&currentrecord=1&moduleid=1&module=c