September brings lower temps and, for the visual art scene, plenty of good tidings with a brand-new art walk, the return of a Pioneer Square staple, scores of fun events and exciting new shows. Bonus: The weather should allow you to both enjoy great outdoor events like Walk the Block and hop from gallery to gallery without breaking a sweat. A giant egg is currently lying on its back at the National Nordic Museum.
The sculpture’s slender limbs and tiny toes and fingers stretch out in a kind of ridiculous agony, mouth agape and eyes wide. In the bonkers, fantastical — and fantastic! — world created by renowned artist duo Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, ovoids are humanoid, colorful ceramic flowers bloom from boulders and stop-motion video fairy tales take visitors on surreal journeys. The duo’s first show on the West Coast in over a decade is a delightfully wild ride.
Through Oct. 27; National Nordic Museum, 2655 N.W.
Market St., Seattle; $5-$20; 206-789-5707, nordicmuseum.org Davidson Galleries, one of Seattle’s longest-running galleries, has been through hell and back.
Early this year, a fire ravaged the Pioneer Square gallery, damaging hundreds of art pieces . Now, after months of recataloging, and restoring artwork, Davidson rises from its ashes in a new location a few blocks away on Yesler Way. The printmaking-focused gallery reopens to the public at Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk with the aptly titled “Welcome Home,” featuring its trademark mix of contemporary local artists with modern and antique printmakers.
Sept. 6-Nov. 2, opening 6-8 p.
m. Sept. 5; Davidson Galleries, 85 Yesler Way, Seattle; free; 206-624-7684, davidsongalleries.
com Terrific news for the Central District — and all of us art lovers: Starting this September, the neighborhood will welcome visitors to its brand-new, monthly Art Walk every First Friday of the month, with art spaces and local businesses opening their doors for a choose-your-own-art adventure throughout the neighborhood. Later in the month, Walk the Block, art space Wa Na Wari’s yearly outdoor visual and performing arts festival , returns, this time for two days instead of one. Expect to encounter art everywhere — across homes, businesses, parks, porches and stages across the neighborhood.
Highly recommend! Central District Art Walk: 6-9 p.m. Sept.
6; various locations; free; seattleartwalks.com/centraldistrict Walk the Block: Sept. 27-28; various locations; free; wanawari.
org/wtb In the rococo jungle of Jeffry Mitchell’s crowded ceramic sculptures, you can spot tiny owls and monkeys and snakes and flowers and — wait, are those bears wearing clothes? Upon closer look, as clay letters spell out “sadness” and “heavy rains,” the celebrated ceramist’s twee exuberance reads more like a horror vacui ; a fear of the void. “It’s a field of joy, complicated with an air of loss,” the artist said in a statement. “Waves of delight laced with subtle pangs of regret and grief.
” This show brings together new ceramic sculptures, mixed-media pieces, prints and ceramic wall-hangings. Sept. 5-28; Traver Gallery, 110 Union St.
#200, Seattle; free; travergallery.com From struggling nonprofits to layoffs and an affordability crisis for artists , it’s been a gloom-ridden few months for local arts. This new initiative is injecting a dose of collaboration and celebration into the scene by bringing nearly 40 local art venues together to showcase our region’s abundance of creativity.
From Beacon Hill to Ballard, art venues will be hosting hands-on workshops, live art demos, theater, figure drawing and mug-making workshops, musical performances and much, much more. Notable events include a cyanotype-making workshop — which involves a camera-less printing technique — at Gallery 4Culture with exhibiting artist Audineh Asaf (Sept. 10), an event where artist Moses Sun paints to the tunes of live jazz at SlipStitch Studio (Sept.
11), an encounter with a live Eurasian eagle-owl called LadyBird (!) at J. Rinehart Gallery (Sept. 12) and a display of native plants and ornithologist talk at Foster/White Gallery (Sept.
12.) Sept. 8-14; various locations; free; artandcultureweek.
com At this Beacon Hill art space, it’s not “ brat summer ,” it’s Bratz summer. The group show “Doll Party” brings together artists who create or work with dolls in some fashion or, per the curators, “artists we feel would enjoy branching out into doll territory.” Sept.
14-Oct. 13; Fresh Mochi, 2900 21st Ave. S.
, Seattle; free; freshmochi.com Titled “Figure. Heads.
,” this show will turn — and showcase — a few heads. From glazed ceramics to painted or stitched with fabric, expect a non-heady show by a slate of great local and national artists. Sept.
14-Nov. 3; AMcE Creative Arts, 612 19th Ave. E.
, Seattle; free; 206-518-1046, amcecreativearts.com Attention, urbanists: “Seattle In-Sights” brings together local artists who focus on our fair city — the buildings, places, parks and waterways that may get overlooked in favor of our natural surroundings. From photos to paintings, there’s plenty of beauty in the concrete.
Sept. 5-28; Chatwin Arts, 323 First Ave. S.
, Seattle; free; 206-420-1141, chatwinarts.com.
