CoCA's 1999 Season

COCA's 1999 Season

Nicola Vruwink
Knows
1999 Northwest Annual

From January 16-March 13, CoCA will present the 1999 Northwest Annual, a juried exhibition. The Northwest Annual - now in its tenth year - provides much-needed exposure for artists from Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon; and also provides the public with a unique chance to view new and experimental artwork firsthand. The Juror of the 1999 Annual will be Kerry James Marshall, a Chicago painter who has received international acclaim. He has had numerous solo shows throughout the US, including a 1995 exhibition at the Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle. His work was seen in 1997 at "Documenta X" and the 69th Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum. In 1997 Marshall also received a coveted "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. His work is in the collections of many major museums including The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and The Studio Museum In Harlem.

Catherine Chalmers

Catherine Chalmers

"Food Chain: Encounters Between Mates, Predators, and Prey," a dynamic exhibition of photographs by Catherine Chalmers, will be exhibited at CoCA April 3-May 22. Chalmers presents an alluring view of the insect world, inviting reflection on the complex relationship between human beings and the smaller creatures that inhabit the earth. A blend of aesthetic vision and technical precision, Chalmer's images lie at the intersection of science and art. Using close-up lenses and rapid shutter speeds, she reveals the unexpected grace of the common housefly and documents the infamous mating ritual of the praying mantis. Her photographs provide colorful evidence of the order of things in the natural world. "Buzz" will be curated by Michael L. Sand, Senior Editor at the Aperture Foundation. Catherine Chalmers was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at PS1 in New York, and her images have been published in Aperture, See, and Harper's magazine.

CLUI photo

LAND/USE/ACTION

From June 12-July 31, CoCA will present "Land/Use/Action: a multi-artist, state-wide project where local and national visual and performance artists interpret the impact of human activity on the landscape of Washington State. CoCA will commission these visual, installation, and performance artists to create new works that engage citizens during their everyday lives -- and get the artwork off the walls and into the streets. Reinterpretations of the environment will take on many forms - from small private gestures to direct artistic investigation of massive public works such as Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The project will utilize the talents and abilities of a range of artists, both local and national. From Seattle, a group of 10 local artists, led by Ruth Marie Tomlinson and Deborah Lawrence, will work with workers from a variety of local industries to create site-specific projects in their work environments (which will also be viewable to the public). In addition to placing site-specific work throughout Seattle, these artists will also be commissioned to create a group installation for the CoCA gallery space. CoCA will also commission new work from veteran performance artists Marilyn Arsem (Boston) and men of the world (Chicago). Arsem will create an experiential, durational performance piece to be performed at a Seattle public park, and Mark Alice Durant and Mathew Wilson (men of the world) will create a Seattle-specific piece based on local history and geography. Rounding out this group of artists will be The Center for Land Use Interpretation (Los Angeles), a non-profit research organization headed by Igor Vamos and Matthew Coolidge. CLUI will create an exhibition of photographs, a bus tour, and accompanying catalog which will document Washington State's largest public use projects. Individually, the sites selected for inclusion may seem random, beautiful, or absurd. Taken together, the collection of these sites becomes an essay on the culture of Washington State, as told by human impact on the landscape.

BOY

CoCA's fourth show of 1999, from August 21-October 9, will be an "installation portrait" by artists Harrell Fletcher and Jon Rubin. Fletcher and Rubin will select a single individual from CoCA's local environment - a store owner, local resident, office worker, student, etc. - and work with that person to create an installation based on his or her own life. Everything in the installation will derive from this one person - their history, snapshots, everyday activities, opinions, interests, daydreams, and personal possessions. This project will also have several public components, such as posters, billboards, newspaper articles and ads, and T-shirts. The subject of the installation, through CoCA and Fletcher and Rubin, will become famous, but the fame will be about being ordinary.

Fletcher and Rubin are emerging artists from Berkeley, California who have created a number of community-based conceptual art projects, including "These Fine People," portrait busts of ordinary citizens mounted on pre-existing light poles in downtown Fairfield, California; and at the San Francisco Art Institute, "Anthony," an installation about art student Anthony Powell's life. Using a variety of media and approaches the show explored some of Anthony's interests including heavy metal music and World Federation Wrestling. The installation included significant objects from Anthony's past, enlarged drawings of all the dogs Anthony has owned, a time line of Anthony's life, a video of Anthony demonstrating wrestling moves on the artists, photographs from his childhood in Long Island, NY, 20 portraits of Anthony produced by a beginning painting class at the school, and 30 T-shirts with photographs of Anthony's high school buddies on them.

Dusk

In celebration of the impending closure of the millenium and the fervor that inherently surrounds this historical event, CoCA presents Dusk, a group exhibition bringing the depths of human terror to the dimming light of day.
The need to experience emotional intensity through our visual imagery has never been more pronounced than now. The union of this intensity with the image of the human form is the focus of this exhibition. Most firmly represented in the culture of gothic, Dusk brings together artists who share a fascination with the darker and dramatic, reveling in the outer representations of inner turmoil and darkness. These representations reflect the anxiety, the emptiness and even the humor felt by these artists as they grapple with the complexities of contemporary culture. By physically presenting human emotion as something tangible, these artists reassert the importance of the individual during this time of chaos and change.
Dusk is a CoCA-generated group exhibition featuring local, national and international artists. The visual arts component is being curated by members of the CoCA Programming Committee, De Kwok and Kim Collmer. The video series is being coordinated by Joel Bachar, curator of Independent Exposure, a Northwest video series.

The season was developed by CoCA's Programming Committee, consisting of Board members, artists, and arts administrators active in the community.

COCA's 1999 Season
Nicola Vruwink Knows	1999 Northwest Annual From January 16-March 13, CoCA will present the *1999 Northwest Annual, a juried exhibition. The Northwest Annual - now in its tenth year - provides much-needed exposure for artists from Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon; and also provides the public with a unique chance to view new and experimental artwork firsthand. The Juror of the 1999 Annual will be Kerry James Marshall*, a Chicago painter who has received international acclaim. He has had numerous solo shows throughout the US, including a 1995 exhibition at the Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle. His work was seen in 1997 at "Documenta X" and the 69th Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum. In 1997 Marshall also received a coveted "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. His work is in the collections of many major museums including The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and The Studio Museum In Harlem.
Catherine Chalmers	Catherine Chalmers *"Food Chain: Encounters Between Mates, Predators, and Prey,"* a dynamic exhibition of photographs by Catherine Chalmers, will be exhibited at CoCA April 3-May 22. Chalmers presents an alluring view of the insect world, inviting reflection on the complex relationship between human beings and the smaller creatures that inhabit the earth. A blend of aesthetic vision and technical precision, Chalmer's images lie at the intersection of science and art. Using close-up lenses and rapid shutter speeds, she reveals the unexpected grace of the common housefly and documents the infamous mating ritual of the praying mantis. Her photographs provide colorful evidence of the order of things in the natural world. "Buzz" will be curated by Michael L. Sand, Senior Editor at the Aperture Foundation. Catherine Chalmers was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at PS1 in New York, and her images have been published in Aperture, See, and Harper's magazine.
CLUI photo	LAND/USE/ACTION From June 12-July 31, CoCA will present "*Land/Use/Action*: a multi-artist, state-wide project where local and national visual and performance artists interpret the impact of human activity on the landscape of Washington State. CoCA will commission these visual, installation, and performance artists to create new works that engage citizens during their everyday lives -- and get the artwork off the walls and into the streets. Reinterpretations of the environment will take on many forms - from small private gestures to direct artistic investigation of massive public works such as Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The project will utilize the talents and abilities of a range of artists, both local and national. From Seattle, a group of 10 local artists, led by Ruth Marie Tomlinson and Deborah Lawrence, will work with workers from a variety of local industries to create site-specific projects in their work environments (which will also be viewable to the public). In addition to placing site-specific work throughout Seattle, these artists will also be commissioned to create a group installation for the CoCA gallery space. CoCA will also commission new work from veteran performance artists Marilyn Arsem (Boston) and men of the world (Chicago). Arsem will create an experiential, durational performance piece to be performed at a Seattle public park, and Mark Alice Durant and Mathew Wilson (men of the world) will create a Seattle-specific piece based on local history and geography. Rounding out this group of artists will be The Center for Land Use Interpretation (Los Angeles), a non-profit research organization headed by Igor Vamos and Matthew Coolidge. CLUI will create an exhibition of photographs, a bus tour, and accompanying catalog which will document Washington State's largest public use projects. Individually, the sites selected for inclusion may seem random, beautiful, or absurd. Taken together, the collection of these sites becomes an essay on the culture of Washington State, as told by human impact on the landscape.
	BOY CoCA's fourth show of 1999, from August 21-October 9, will be an "installation portrait" by artists Harrell Fletcher and Jon Rubin. Fletcher and Rubin will select a single individual from CoCA's local environment - a store owner, local resident, office worker, student, etc. - and work with that person to create an installation based on his or her own life. Everything in the installation will derive from this one person - their history, snapshots, everyday activities, opinions, interests, daydreams, and personal possessions. This project will also have several public components, such as posters, billboards, newspaper articles and ads, and T-shirts. The subject of the installation, through CoCA and Fletcher and Rubin, will become famous, but the fame will be about being ordinary. Fletcher and Rubin are emerging artists from Berkeley, California who have created a number of community-based conceptual art projects, including "These Fine People," portrait busts of ordinary citizens mounted on pre-existing light poles in downtown Fairfield, California; and at the San Francisco Art Institute, "Anthony," an installation about art student Anthony Powell's life. Using a variety of media and approaches the show explored some of Anthony's interests including heavy metal music and World Federation Wrestling. The installation included significant objects from Anthony's past, enlarged drawings of all the dogs Anthony has owned, a time line of Anthony's life, a video of Anthony demonstrating wrestling moves on the artists, photographs from his childhood in Long Island, NY, 20 portraits of Anthony produced by a beginning painting class at the school, and 30 T-shirts with photographs of Anthony's high school buddies on them.
	Dusk In celebration of the impending closure of the millenium and the fervor that inherently surrounds this historical event, CoCA presents Dusk, a group exhibition bringing the depths of human terror to the dimming light of day. The need to experience emotional intensity through our visual imagery has never been more pronounced than now. The union of this intensity with the image of the human form is the focus of this exhibition. Most firmly represented in the culture of gothic, Dusk brings together artists who share a fascination with the darker and dramatic, reveling in the outer representations of inner turmoil and darkness. These representations reflect the anxiety, the emptiness and even the humor felt by these artists as they grapple with the complexities of contemporary culture. By physically presenting human emotion as something tangible, these artists reassert the importance of the individual during this time of chaos and change. Dusk is a CoCA-generated group exhibition featuring local, national and international artists. The visual arts component is being curated by members of the CoCA Programming Committee, De Kwok and Kim Collmer. The video series is being coordinated by Joel Bachar, curator of Independent Exposure, a Northwest video series.
	The season was developed by CoCA's Programming Committee, consisting of Board members, artists, and arts administrators active in the community.