Hi-Fructose Art Invitational Opens This Friday, in Seattle!

Kazuki Takamatsu "Prepare For The Unknown Future Enemy" mixed media, acrylic on canvas

Roq La Rue and Hi-Fructose Magazine present

"The Hi Fructose Group Invitational"

Opens Friday March 11th 6-9pm 

runs through April 2nd

Participating artists include: Al Columbia, Aron Wiesenfeld, Chris Berens, Dalek/James Marshall, Bob Dob, Eric Fortune, Femke Hiemstra, Harma Heikens, Jason D'Aquino, Jeremy Geddes, Kazuki Takamatsu, Martin Wittfooth, Michael Page, Rob Sato, Robert Hardgrave, Scott Hove, Tim Biskup, Travis Lampe, Nicola Verlato, Sylvia Ji 

Hi-Fructose Magazine is pleased to announce it's 2011 group exhibition at Roq La Rue Gallery. This show is curated as an appreciation for the multi faceted nature of art in our evolving culture and features all new work from a diverse selection of world class artists highlighted in Hi-Fructose past, present and future.

Albert Von Keller and His Occult Art

This post is long overdue, I really wanted to get it up sooner, but alas! While visiting Seattle, went to the Frye Museum to see a show titled "Seance", featuring the works of Albert Von Keller. I was ignorant of his works and was mesmerized by their wonderfully creepy, moody, druggy kind feel. Some made one feel like they were in a turn of the century insane asylum, while others had an opium-den-brothel kind of feel to them. I fell in love with them all. Incredible antique frames anointed each piece as well. Getting a nice photo of them was very difficult, you will need to see these works for yourself, if ever you get the chance. This museum was a surprisingly great visit as well, the fantastic permanent collection in the back room will have to wait for an even later post. 

From the Frye's site:
"Keller’s close association with the Munich psychiatrist Dr. Albert von Schrenck-Notzing (1862–1929), and his participation in séances and occult experiments, placed him at the center of passionate debates in fin de siècle Germany on Seelenleben, or the life of the soul. While fascinated by the paranormal, Keller was equally enthralled by traditional Christian narratives such as the raising of the dead, the powers of mystical healing, and the mysteries of stigmata. He engaged in a lifelong search for new techniques and visual forms to describe shifting, uncertain states of being and becoming."
"The Frye Art Museum’s exhibition showcases Keller’s enigmatic subjects—corpses, séances, dancers in trancelike states, martyred saints, and burning witches—to reveal a potent combination of religious fervor, mysticism, and sensuality. It presents key paintings by Keller from the Kunsthaus Zürich, whose collection was recently enriched by the remarkable gift of more than three hundred paintings by Albert von Keller from the estate of Swiss chemist Oskar A. Müller (1899–1994)."

Cris Brodahl Rocks The Seattle Art Museum

Spent the good part of a cold day strolling around the Seattle Art Museum and was riveted by the works of Cris. Her paintings are based on collages from magazines that she puts together, so from far away they really look like huge collages. Up close it is obviously a painting... They have a great mixed marriage of surrealism and symbolism- added with the dark sepia tonalities, they juxtapose modern day with vintage times, in a strange but beguiling way. Easily the best stuff on display in the museum, better than even the huge Picasso exhibit. Skip the lines for Picasso and go see Cris instead.
SAM link.

Seattle Street Art

Thought you all might enjoy a few pix of some cool street art that we spied on our recent trip to Seattle.

Five Stars For Femke! "The Bone Shaped Bone" Exhibit

Made it up to Seattle and was so stoked to be able to go to the opening reception of Femke Hiemstra's new body of work. Rarely do I see a solo exhibit where every single piece is of top notch caliber. 

Her superlative works, currently on view at Roq La Rue in Seattle, fall into every category of excellence possible. The vision, creativity, technique, imagination, originality and presentation - all exceeded expectations and then some. They are smallish, beautifully solid works; so fine was the detail and shading it looked as if it had been painted with a single bristle. In fact,  I can't believe she's not blind. Some were painted directly on vintage book covers or game boxes and some were black and white graphite renderings on paper. The imagery is fairy tale in feel, lots of animal characters and fantasy scenarios. Typographic embellishments  highlighted a few of the pieces - graceful additions of vintage lettering styles, they wove in and out of the imagery, as only a keen eye for design can accomplish.

Roq Le Rue interior

It was rewarding to finally visit Roq Le Rue gallery as it has been on my hit list for way too many years. They have had incredible shows over the years that fill the newbrow art niche for Seattle. A nice space with cool tunes (playing Bowie as I walked in...) and a wide open feel, one couldn't have asked for a better exhibit to see than Femke's "The Bone Shaped Bone". If you live in Seattle or plan on being near there, make sure to put this on your "must do" list! The show is up thru Dec. 4th, 2010.

The beautiful and friendly Femke Hiemstra, love her!

If the images weren't enough to satisfy your soul, here's some more words - a nice take on Femke's works from the gallery site:
Femke Hiemstra’s meticulously tight, jewel like mixed media paintings and exquisitely rendered black and white drawings are homes to a dark fairytale land where inanimate objects come to life and frolic with animal neighbors. Lollipops become ship captains, strawberries become giant wrestlers, and vegetables become Halloween gods with lantern eyes. Femke occasionally uses typography in her work, using words from various languages and letters in her paintings to further enhance the narrative while still retaining a playful sense of mystery, or as a visual device to frame in the scenery, as if you were looking at her world through a secret window. She also uses found objects to paint on, such as boxes and wrappers, to create imaginary products with magical properties. In this series she has several paintings on vintage book covers, which are then tantalizingly sealed up in a frame, leaving the viewer to speculate on the full story.

Links: Roq Le Rue, Femke's site