Pioneer Square’s First Thursday crowds may be getting the headlines, but the city’s visual arts scene stretches far beyond one neighborhood. From Belltown to Ballard to Capitol Hill—and even down to Tacoma—galleries and museums are presenting new exhibitions that reward a slow look. Here are the shows we recommend seeing this spring.

Indira Allegra: The Book of Zero

UW’s Jacob Lawrence Gallery kicked off the year with its current exhibition, Indira Allegra: The Book of Zero, featuring work by the 2026 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency artist. To prepare for the show, Indira Allegra, a conceptual artist and founder of Cazimi Studio, spent time in Seattle researching doula work, death care, and the cyclical nature of bodies and environments. The resulting exhibition, comprising weaving, water, and projected imagery, looks at the oppressive systems that shape communities, and what actions must be taken to fully disband them. Gallery visitors are encouraged to reflect on the following question as they move through the work: What do I need to release in order to move forward?

Indira Allegra: The Book of Zero runs through April 4 at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery.

Visual Symphony II

Tacoma-based artist Scott Gibson has worn many hats over the years: father, tech executive, bioengineer. Through it all, art has been a constant thread, one he started to pursue full time in 2017. For his latest show at Gray Sky Gallery, Visual Symphony II, Gibson, who lives with synesthesia, invites viewers into a space where music and visual art collide. “I see emotions, thoughts, and feelings as rooms of distorted space and color,” Gibson says. “This series of artworks attempts to express the musical visuals that I see when hearing a song.” The series of mixed- media paintings and sculptures features bold colors and textures that convey a range of emotions and experiences. “To best capture what I see in my mind,” Gibson says, “I have pioneered resin painting techniques that feel like something is hidden inside the work, like there is some mystery that I can’t quite reach.”

Visual Symphony II runs through – April 30 at Gray Sky Gallery.

Boren Banner Series: Chloe King

This spring, the Frye Art Museum debuts a new Boren Banner from Portland-born, Oakland-based artist Chloe King. Taking pride of place on the museum’s Boren Avenue exterior, the vibrant, slightly mysterious installation dives into the artist’s recent explorations of the topic of Queer nightlife. “The Boren Banner project has been an opportunity to think about visibility at a civic scale,” King says. “What it means for queer, speculative imagery to live openly in public space, meeting people  where they are rather than waiting to be found. I’m excited by how the work extends my ongoing exploration of nightlife, performance, and futurity into the everyday visual rhythm of the city, where the work can be encountered casually, remembered unevenly, and carried forward with a laugh.”

Boren Banner Series: Chloe King will be on display through October 11 at the Frye Art Museum.

Ojo|-|ólo

This spring, the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery, in collaboration with the Bell Art Gallery at Brown University, will open the largest solo presentation to date of work by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege. A trained weaver, Riege, who is based in New Mexico, employs traditional Diné practices to create oversized textile and fiber forms that coalesce into a body of work celebrating the knowledge and craft passed through generations. According to exhibition notes, Ojo|-|ólo, is a bicoastal exhibition “based on Riege’s material research and engagement with the Navajo collections held by Brown’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.” In addition to Riege’s sculptures, the exhibition will include jewelry, regalia, and sketches, and, at certain times, live, durational performances planned to activate the space.

Ojo|-|ólo runs March 14 – October 25 at the Henry Art Gallery.

Julie C Baer, Pacific Acorn Barnacle Red (Balanus glandula), 2025, Mixed media (acrylic, painted paper, stones, shells, seaglass, glass beads) on paper, 30×22″.

Photo by Lucas Bancroft-Baer

Decay

Guest curated by Izzy Dunn, a graduate student in the University of Washington’s Department of Museology, The Vestibule’s newest exhibition, Decay, looks at the beauty and release of things falling apart. “It’s exciting that this is the first time that we are partnering with the UW Museology program to host an emerging curator,” says gallery owner Kascha Semonovitch. “This year at The Vestibule, all our exhibitions are with a guest curator and/or by Latinx or Asian immigrants; this is all part of an effort to invite new voices into our programming.” Featuring work primarily from PNW artists—sculpture, wall-mounted 3D pieces, and installations made from natural and reclaimed materials—Decay promises to be a mind-tapping show that makes viewers think about impermanence, duration, and natural transitions.

Decay runs April 4–25 at The Vestibule.

Ancient Ones

Longtime seattle artist Marita Dingus is known for her intricate mixed-media works: figures made from hand-shaped clay, scrap metal, pieces of discarded cloth, and the kind of objects you might find in someone’s kitchen junk drawer. The result is powerful. Full of emotion and story, history and humanity, each sculpture takes many hours to piece together. During the month of May, Traver Gallery will present Ancient Ones, featuring new work by Dingus, who drew inspiration from relics of the African Diaspora and the history of enslaved people to create the collection for the show. “I consider myself an African-American feminist and environmental artist,” Dingus says. “My approach to producing art is environmentally and politically infused: neither waste humanity nor the gifts of nature.”

Ancient Ones runs May 2–30 at Traver Gallery.

Project NW: Ralph Pugay

Mixing humor, darkness, and social commentary, artist Ralph Pugay’s work is layered—you’ll always see something new when you take a second look. As part of its Project NW series—which is dedicated to showcasing the work of regional artists—the Tacoma Art Museum is currently running a solo show of Pugay’s work, put together by TAM Curator of Collections, Ellen Ito. Born in the Philippines, Pugay and his family moved to the United States when he was a teenager; he currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Working mostly in acrylic on canvas, the artist uses repetition, detail, and absurdity to build singular worlds. “I’m interested in how meaning resists being pinned down,” says Pugay. “The work invites viewers to linger in uncertainty, to notice how humor, memory, and contradiction can coexist without needing resolution. For me, that openness feels closer to how we actually experience the world—messy, layered, and full of unexpected connections.”

Project NW: Ralph Pugay runs through May 17 at Tacoma Art Museum.

This story is part of Seattle magazine’s Spring Arts series, which highlights theater, dance, film, and visual arts across the city.