Seattle Art Museum

👋 We’re open! Spend your Labor Day at SAM and be one of the last visitors to see “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture” on the exhibition’s closing day. You’ll see an eclectic variety of ceramics, sculptures, paintings, and more by Northwest icons including Patti Warashina, Fay Jones, Jeffry Mitchell, Robert Arneson, Xenobia Bailey, and Howard Kottler. Not in the mood for this collection of far out art? Visit the Seattle Asian Art Museum to see elegant Korean Buncheong ware, whiteware, and blue-and-white ceramics from across time in “Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection”—we’re open over there too! 🎟️ Tickets are still available at visitsam.org/tickets or in-person via our Ticketing Desk and self-serve kiosks. [📸 Chloe Collyer]

Alexander Calder engaged with the medium of oil painting throughout his career, but these works remain lesser known than his sculptures. Painted by the artist in 1958 and acquired by John Shirley in 2022, “The Yellow Disc” is the most recent addition to the Shirley Family’s Calder holdings and the only oil painting in the collection. See it on view in “Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection,” now at SAM! visitsam.org/calder [📸 Chloe Collyer © 2024 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.]

🪑 "If it fits, I sits." – Bobby McCullough In this episode of our fan-favorite video series 🍃 Botany with Bobby 🍃, Bobby McCullough, SAM's Facilities and Landscape Manager, shares his three favorite shady benches (which are also artworks!) at the Olympic Sculpture Park and beat the summer heat. Watch now! ⬇️

🚨 The final weekend of “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture” starts NOW! Follow in the footsteps of these picture-perfect visitors and explore this SAM-curated exhibition’s colorfully weird galleries before it closes this Monday, September 2 at 5 pm. Don’t miss out—get your tickets before it’s too late! visitsam.org/pokeintheeye [📸 @ademmerson, @mr.stevenuniverze, @faeryndipity, @sammyskidmore, @bluedotbeadwork, @boundforcountry, @abby_j_rhoads, and @shabby_027 on IG]

There’s only one correct way to experience Viola Frey’s sculptures and that’s with a 360° view. The artist’s 1992 large-scale ceramic sculpture “Untitled Family Group”—on view in “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture” at SAM—boldly places both the everyday individual and the world of craft into the realm of monuments. Here, three conventionally dressed, contemporary figures sit atop a classical base, surrounded by the vestiges of art history: an equestrian figure, a female nude, a prone head reminiscent of a Roman imperial colossus, and figures dressed in both Eastern and Western historical garb. Unifying all the figures with her singular expressionistic style, the artist wryly collapses old and new, monumental and mundane, onto equal footing. Uncover the details within Frey’s 13-part sculpture in this video featuring Carrie Dedon, a SAM curator and the brains behind “Poke in the Eye.” The exhibition closes this Monday, September 2—get tickets to see this artwork from every angle before it’s gone! visitsam.org/pokeintheeye 

We're open 6️⃣ days this week! Both the Seattle Art Museum and Seattle Asian Art Museum will be open regular hours on Labor Day, Monday, September 2. That's one extra day to see exhibitions including "Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture," "Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection," and so much more! visitsam.org/tickets [📸 Chloe Collyer]

🇰🇷 "Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection" is now on view! This exhibition invites you to contemplate exquisite Korean ceramics, calligraphy, paintings, and more. It also celebrates the return of Wednesdays at the Seattle Asian Art Museum! Our historic Art Deco gem is now open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, every week. Hot tip: You could also visit this Monday, September 2—both the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum are open for Labor Day! visitsam.org/meot [📸 Kat Bryant Flaherty]

Have you ever wondered who creates the interactives at SAM? With the ceramic touch table, the counterculture response wall, the ordinary to extraordinary art activity, and the rotary phone audio guides, "Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture" at SAM is full of interactive experiences. Now on #SAMBlog, the brilliant minds behind these activities—Emily Gardner, SAM Assistant Manager for Gallery Learning, and Ramzy Lakos, SAM Digital Interpretation Specialist—share how they came up with each of these experiences, a bit of the feedback they've received from visitors, and what's next for the Interpretation team at SAM. https://lnkd.in/grcAZG-6

🌊 Amp up your summer with the Waterfront Block Party this Friday, August 30! With celebrations taking place across the downtown waterfront—including at the Olympic Sculpture Park, Pier 62, and Occidental Square—you won't want to miss this daylong festival spotlighting local artisans, performers, musicians, and more. 🚴♂️ Calling all bikers! Join us at the Olympic Sculpture Park at noon for an art-making activity, hosted by The Bikery, creating bike safety ornaments. Plus, two bike mechanics will be onsite to spruce up visitors' bikes. At 2 pm, The Bikery will then lead a public group bike ride from the park, through the waterfront, to Occidental Square where additional activities and performances will be taking place. Discover all that Friends of Waterfront Park have in store for the fourth annual Waterfront Block Party here: https://lnkd.in/gnpcxkqp. [📸 Alborz Kamalizad]

🥳 Happy birthday Robert Colescott! Like many of the artworks on view in "Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture" at SAM, the vibrant colors and figurative style of Colescott's "Susanna and the Elders (Novelty Hotel)" (1980) draws the viewer in, then flips expectations upside down. This intriguing painting recounts the biblical story of Susanna, found in the Book of Daniel. Unlike previous artistic interpretations of the story, however, Colescott transforms the story into a comical episode that shifts the power in favor of the female lead. Learn more about the story of this work—and how Colescott updates its message —from Nicole Block, SAM Collections Associate, on #SAMBlog! https://lnkd.in/gJyV2qac