Staff Picks
Out with the old, in with the new: As we turn over a new leaf in 2025, here’s how to start the year off right, with fresh exhibits, novel ideas, futuristic techniques and emerging artists.
“Controllables”
Seattle gallery SOIL crests a major milestone this year: The nonprofit, artist-led co-op celebrates its 30th birthday — which amounts to about 90 years in the art world. But don’t be fooled: The Pioneer Square gallery’s programming is often fresh and regularly facilitates encounters with exciting emerging artists. SOIL’s first show of 2025 provides a rendezvous with its new members, who are showing a selection of varied work about the slippery contours of power.
Through Feb. 22; SOIL Gallery, 112 Third Ave. S., Seattle; free; 206-264-8061, soilart.org
“A New Look at Photo History: Treasures from the Solander Collection”
The sepia features of the woman amid the foliage is somewhat fuzzy — time and a bygone photo-printing technique made it so. American photographer Sarah Sears (1858-1935), an art collector whose own contributions to the field have been largely forgotten, made this picture at the turn of the 20th century.
It is one of a few dozen photographs in a new exhibit that promises a fresh perspective on art history by spotlighting innovators and influencers who have been pushed to the margins, as well as unexpected imagery from well-known names. Think: Ansel Adams’ tight, vertical black-and-white shot of an imposing water tower, still bearing the telltale clair-obscure of his more famous natural expanses; and a snapshot of a show poster by Diane Arbus, the celebrated master of stark portraits.
Through March 20; Photographic Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave., Seattle; free; 206-720-7222, pcnw.org
“Brent Watanabe: One Tethered Bird”
Art that incorporates technology like artificial intelligence or virtual reality can feel gimmicky, like artistic fast food. But when done right — when tech is a means to an end, rather than the end itself — these works can be powerful meditations on the absurdities of the Digital Age.
The eerie, entrancing work of Seattle’s Brent Watanabe falls in the latter category. He uses computer programming and video games to turn viewers into players who navigate a maze of human consumption and its devastating consequences.
Playing the pixelated, Sisyphean video game How Many Birds, you’re always making the wrong choice as the clock ticks mercilessly. A live feed shows Mount Rushmore slowly but surely becoming a landfill, and in the uncanny valley of his Grand Theft Auto V-based animated video, “Possessions,” animal avatars seem possessed with a supernatural knowledge — perhaps of the ruinous road we’re on.
Through Feb. 21; The Behnke Family Gallery, Cornish College of the Arts, 1077 Lenora St., Seattle; free; cornish.edu/behnke
Life, death, nature and technology
Speaking of captivating, technology-forward shows: last call for “Fischersund: Faux Flora” at the National Nordic Museum, an immersive-interactive show that combines meditations on life and death with artful scents and digitally sculpted 3D flowers blooming on screens.
Through Feb. 23; National Nordic Museum, 2655 N.W. Market St., Seattle; 206-789-5707, nordicmuseum.org
While you’re in the neighborhood, stop by “Specimens of Time” at Ballard’s Vestibule, where local artist Maja Petrić created an evocative, mysterious light sculpture with optical materials, light and generative algorithms to evoke threatened natural habitats.
Through Jan. 25; The Vestibule, 5919 15th Ave. N.W., Seattle; thevestibule.org
Also don’t miss
“Divided”
With a new presidential administration, 2025 brings new opportunities for artists to reflect on the state of democracy. With this group show, featuring established local artists like Deborah Lawrence, Elisheba Johnson and Timothy White Eagle, Fresh Mochi gallery searches for “resistance, reconciliation and hope.”
Through Feb. 14; Fresh Mochi, 2900 21st Ave. S., Seattle; free; freshmochi.com
“Town and Country Crier”
In this excellently titled exhibit, Seattle public artist Buster Simpson shows original work and takes visitors on a tour of First Avenue, highlighting the “art that surrounds them every day.”
Feb. 7-March 8; Slip Gallery, 2301 First Ave., Seattle; free; slipgallery.com
“Smash Putt”
What if we told you mini golf is cool? That is, Putt-Putt is cool if you play on miniature golf courses designed by local designers and artists at Base Camp Studios 2 during “Smash Putt.”
Opening Feb. 14; Base Camp Studios 2, 1901 Third Ave., Seattle; $15-$25; smashputt.com
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the correct dates for the “Town and Country Crier” exhibit.
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