Arts
Read More ›
The Inaugural Seattle Art Fair Opens This Month
The Seattle Art Fair brings a Biennale vibe to the Northwest
This article originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
Presumably, one of the cool things about being Paul Allen is having enough money to fund all of your interests. The Microsoft cofounder has invested heavily in his hobbies, including planes (Flying Heritage Collection), brains (Allen Institute for Brain Science), music, sci-fi and moviegoing (EMP Museum and Cinerama).
But he’s also an avid art collector, which explains why his company, Vulcan Inc., is coproducing the inaugural Seattle Art Fair.
“It emanates from Paul Allen’s vision that art should be accessible to all,” says Vulcan’s director of art collections, Mary Ann Prior. Conceived in the style of global arts fairs such as the Venice Biennale and Art Basel, the event is intended to be an annual Seattle arts staple.
Among the approximately 60 galleries exhibiting at CenturyLink Field are about a dozen Seattle galleries (including stalwarts Greg Kucera, G. Gibson, James Harris, Winston Wächter and Woodside/Braseth). Vulcan partnered with Brooklyn-based Art Market Productions (which has created art fairs in San Francisco, New York City, Houston and Miami) to coordinate the massive effort and ensure that the Seattle ethos is palpable. “Art Market really tailor-makes art fairs for each city,” Prior says. “It’s not a cookie-cutter approach.”
In homage to Seattle’s strong Pacific Rim ties, event curators have emphasized contemporary Asian art in the offerings. Also very much of this city is the fair’s overarching theme: technology, and how it’s being used to make art. But perhaps the most exciting aspect of the fair is the way it will spread out and showcase different locations across Seattle. Max Fishko, director of the Seattle Art Fair and managing partner at Art Market Productions, says, “It seems incredibly selfish to hoard all this art inside a convention center.” Accordingly, Fishko and the locally based curatorial team have planned large-scale installations and events at places that include MadArt Space, Volunteer Park, Myrtle Edwards Park and the future home of the Denny Substation. “The most important thing,” Fishko says, “is getting art from the show out into the community, and bringing the energy into the public sphere.”
7/30–8/2. 1 day $20, 3-days $35, VIP $150. Multiple venues, including CenturyLink Field Event Center; seattleartfair.com
Follow Us
Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…
Studio Sessions: Ling Chun
The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.
For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…
The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever
PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.
Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair. I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…
Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026
Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.
Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…