Kate Protage Selected as 1 of 6 finalists for City Arts Best of Art Walk Awards

City Arts has selected the 6 finalists for the Spring Art Walk Awards celebration. The artists have a chance to win $1000 and a spotlight in City Arts.

They are:
Kate Protage, Phinneywood, Bherd Studios
Sarah Loertscher, West Seattle, Click!
Carla G, West Seattle, Carmilia's
Greg Boudreau, Capitol Hill, Ghost Gallery
Jesse Higman, Capitol Hill, Vermillion
Karen Hackenberg, Capitol Hill, Vermillion

Here's a link to a slideshow of the winners.

Kate Protages' piece entitled "Exhibit A" was in our March "Book Club" exhibit at Bherd Studios Gallery. So not only is she representing her work, but also the honor of our name & our neighborhood ;-) So please come out for the celebration, vote for her & make sure her piece wins.

Kate will be back in our gallery in May for "SubUrban" along with Kellie Talbot and another selected finalist on the Art Walk Awards list, Greg Boudreau.

Here are the details on the party...

Art Walk Awards will be held Thursday April 28th at FRED WILDLIFE REFUGE

Full bar, complimentary Blue Moon summer seasonal, DJ Swervewon, visual delights from Dumb Eyes & more. Doors 8pm, 21+, admission is free when you RSVP to promos@cityartsmagazine.com with ART WALK in the subject line.

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About the Art Walk Awards: In 2011, four winners will each receive $1,000 and a profile of their artwork in City Arts magazine. Together with our 2011 partners, the Art Walk Consortium, businesses and galleries that participate in neighborhood art walks can nominate a favorite piece of art for each month. Each spring, summer, winter and fall, we narrow dozens of submissions down to six finalists, and then throw a party in their honor (with delicious and free Blue Moon seasonal beers, music, food and more). Anyone attending the event gets to vote for the winner and we'll hand out the award that night.

Kate Protage Featured Seattle Artist at the Alexis Hotel

One of Kate Protage's most recently finished paintings that will be hanging at the Alexis Hotel.

Stop by the Alexis Hotel this Thursday, December 2nd from 5-6pm and kick-off the 1st Thursday artwalk with our new "Meet the Artist" event. The Alexis is within easy walking distance from a majority of 1st Thursday galleries and venues. Artist, Kate Protage will be in the lobby speaking with guests and artwalk attendees about her work and will have a selection of her paintings on display through the SAM rental gallery and the Bherd Gallery "Meet the Artist" program.

For non-guests, cocktails & other beverages are available at the Bistro & Bookstore Bar and can be brought into the lobby during the event. For hotel guests, this event is held in conjunction with the guest wine reception. This is a great chance to speak with Kate about how she creates her paintings from beginning to end. You'll definitely want to ask her about her evening photo shoots while driving!



Above are pieces from our "Take 5" exhibit that will be showing through December 24th at Bherd Studios Gallery. We will be taking a few of them along to show at the Alexis on Dec 2nd.



Artist Statement
I have a love/hate relationship with the cities in which I’ve lived. Everywhere I look, evidence of planning and structure exists simultaneously with chaos and unpredictability. Depending on the time of day, there are two worlds that exist in the same physical space: streets that appear gritty, dirty and depressing by day turn into an environment infused with a strange kind of lush, dark beauty and romance at night. Taking it all in can be both stressful and exciting, and I feel compelled to capture these moments and remember them.

What interests me most is the junction between sensation and fact—the way different objects come together, a combination of colors, lines and geometric shapes working together in a lyrical fashion to form intensely vivid, sometimes quite abstracted compositions. The origin of individual shapes becomes unimportant as color and texture take over, and different emotions emerge.

My paintings are the beginning of a story—a space that is somewhat recognizable and familiar, but leaves room for the story of the viewer’s choosing. Whether it feels magical and beautiful, or oppressive and ominous, that’s up to the viewer; but the plan is to take people to another place, one that’s part memory and part imagination, and provide them with a momentary escape.

I seek visual harmony, order and polish—in a tumultuous world, these are the things that keep me balanced, and they are the tools for my escape. I choose to pursue beauty.

April, 1st Thursday: Troy Gua & The Collaborati at Monarch & More

Artwork by Ryan Mollenkamp


TROY GUA & the Collaborati : Meet Greet Rinse Repeat
Thurs, April 1 - Fri, April 30, 2010
Reception: Thursday, April 1, 6-8pm


SEATTLE, March 10, 2010 -- Monarch Contemporary is pleased to announce an installation of glyph sculptures by Troy Gua and the Collaborati. From cave paintings, hieroglyphics and cuneiform to modern sentences, written communication has evolved from visual symbols to a structured system of complex words and phrases. With accelerating technology, many believe that communication will continue to evolve, forever altering the “written word” as we know it. Others argue that we have entered an era of de-evolution, where the advent of hand-held devices and social networking is causing us to revert backward to a less sophisticated system of symbols, acronyms and emoticons.

With 'Meet Greet Rinse Repeat', Troy Gua is asking fellow artists to communicate with him in respectively unique visual languages. He begins the conversation with a hand cut graphic character of invented symbolism. He sends this to his collaborator who infuses it with whatever creative spirit they deem fit. The collaborator then “replies” by passing their visual response back to the originator. Gua concludes the interchange by applying a resin coating, which bonds the exchange between originator and collaborator. Each collaborating artist assigns a conversational title to the finished work, providing the viewer with an insight into this personal communiqué.

Gua’s collection of works introduces a third dimension to the traditional concept of artist and viewer. Here the artist is not choosing the subject matter for the viewer. Rather, each artist responds or “replies” to subject matter introduced by a third party. This provides the viewer with the fascinating experience of witnessing each artist’s unique response to Gua’s original symbolic suggestion. As a consequence, we are afforded an unexpectedly personal and candid insight into the thought processes of each collaborating artist.

Participating Artists:
Sharon Arnold • Ben Beres • Susanna Bluhm • Cynthia Camlin • Daniel Carrillo • Jojo Corväiá • Chris Crites • Jed Dunkerley • Warren Dykeman • Eric Elliott • Cristin Ford • Erin Frost • Marie Gagnon • Cable Griffith • Noah Grussgott • Catherine Gua • Robert Hardgrave • Meg Hartwig • Sol Hashemi/Jason Hirata • Harold Hollingsworth • Etsuko Ichikawa • Amy Johnson • Claire Johnson • Shaun Kardinal • Ken Kelly • Counsel Langley • Margie Livingston • Greg Lundgren • Amanda Manitach • Ryan Molenkamp • Damon Mori • Saya Moriyasu • Molly Norris • Kate Protage • Jason Puccinelli • Ariana Page Russell • Bailey Russel • Erin Shafkind • Arun Sharma • Chris Sheridan • Scott Story • Liz Tran • Kimberly Trowbridge • Sylwia Tur • Joey Veltkamp • Laura Ward • Jennifer Zeyl


MONARCH CONTEMPORARY
312 South Washington St.
Seattle WA 98104

"Perched #2" by John Osgood

While Ryan Mollenkamp, Kate Protage and Chris Sheridan are over at Monarch with Troy Gua and the Collaborati exhibit, they have kindly given John Osgood a large section of their Baby Seal Club as a guest artist. John will be bringing some of his newest work along with some collaborated (with Zachary Bohnenkamp) limited edition prints. The limited edition prints are part of a fundraising effort of the 2 artists to help with travel costs to get them to Bristol UK for the largest European Urban Art Fest in June.

Please stop by 619 Western Building and visit the 4th floor!

"Counterpoint" by Bobbi Jo Epperson from her Portrait Project

Plus, an artist from Olympia that we featured last year is showing at Deli this month as well! Please stop by and see her works from 2 different series:

Seed Series: Seed is a gathering of images, memories, stories, and experiences that have hung in my mind and soul since youth. This project is a cathartic effort to release these visions from the cage that has been protectively housing them for so long. The images are spontaneous and collaged, much like the memories themselves.

Portrait Project: a collection of portraits that explores deep psychological framework that attempt to nudge the viewer from complacency into an interpretation of your own dark emotions.

Deli
87 Yesler Way
Seattle, WA 98104
206-682-2446
http://deliseattle.com

Kate Protage at Conor Byrne this Saturday

This Saturday, November 14th, is the Ballard Art Walk and Kate will have some work up at Conor Byrne Pub--come by and have a beer or a soda with her.

In a Seattle Weekly review in August, David Stoesz speaks of Protages recent works "The magic of the paintings lies in how a few sharp-edged blobs of paint can so economically transmit an atmosphere of nocturnal mystery, and so precisely indicate the side of a bus, a haze of light from a storefront, or a couple standing in the shadows."

It's a wonderful description of the talented hand behind the artwork. Don't miss seeing her this Saturday from 6-9pm!

Conor Byrne
5410 Ballard Ave NW.
Seattle, WA