Earlier this year, it was announced that the 619 Building — Pioneer Square’s First Thursday’s most exciting spot — would be closing and its artists forced to relocate. In celebration of this, the recent Art Walks at 619 have been out of control, with visitors spilling out of doorways, artists jovial and lively, and musical acts aplenty.

But these good times are being ground to a halt abruptly. According to Seattle PI, “Instead of their original spring move-out deadline, at least 8 months away, they have now been told that need to be out in just two months.”

With August 1st as the new cut-off date, artists will unfortunately not be able to participate in the First Thursday Art Walk on August 4th; instead, residents will be celebrating Last Thursday tonight.

As the artists search for new studio spaces in the near future, we just want to give one last hurrah to the legacy of the 619 Building as we know it. This post highlights some of the building’s residents, and other artists who have simply shown there, who have come to be adored by REDEFINE — many of which have gone on to become major players in the Seattle art scene. Having a studio in the 619 Building has very obviously helped foster career growth for many of these talented individuals, and with the hour of demise looming so close, let’s just take a moment to celebrate the great moments that have been had in the space, where residents and visitors alike have stepped on open, even grounds.

Chris Sheridan

“”If you let your head get too big, you stop growing.”
READ FULL INTERVIEW

Stacey Rozich

“As I got older, I learned that if you can convey a story with an image, then you’re good; you’re golden. So I focused on having this background narrative that wasn’t quite obvious, yet each piece has a little vignette — a little drama in it.”
READ FULL INTERVIEW

lucien knuteson

“Just because something has been done before does not mean that you shouldn’t pull the trigger yourself, because that’s the only way to learn and the only way to get better.”
READ FULL INTERVIEW

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AND MUCH OLDER…

July 2008 Recap: Bryan Mandronico, Erin Kendig, Stacey Rozich
May 2008 Recap: PeeGee!, Ego, Parskid, Keith Noordzy, Jeff Jacobson, Aaron Kraten, Weston Jandacka, Kate Protage, Chris Sheridan, Lucien Knuteson
April 2008 Recap: Mark M. Magill, Ryan Molenkamp, Redd, Carl Faulkner
Jason Sho Green Interview

Animalistic, ritualistic romp with Nick Cave, entitled Meet Me At The Center Of The Earth — going on from now through June 5th, 2011. You’d be a fool not to.

Since she has a show at Bherd Studios tonight (8537 Greenwood Ave N Suite 1, Seattle, WA), it’s about time we draw some attention to the work of REDEFINE staff writer, Tessa Hulls!

The pieces here will not be the same as the ones in the show tonight, but they’re a part of an interesting series on migration and memory, in which Hulls visually documents nomadic characters within her memory.

To quote from her artist statement:

“As I started traversing the process of memory, I began to see forgetting as an active process. These funny little characters started sailing their tree-boats across my sketches, and I started thinking of them as memory nomads. In their world, which might also be our world, memories are made of finite material, and there is a limited amount of that material to go round. You can’t remember everything because the substance of your memories has to be recycled in order to make new memories. Think of a memory as a set for a play: the memory begins as something detailed and intricate, and these memory workers gradually dissemble that set. They take away a rug here, a chair there, until eventually all you’re left with is a sketch, a placeholder that recollects the entire scene.

These memory nomads are gypsies: they move in packs and have no real home. I’m not sure if they’re lonely, or if loneliness is something that really exists for them, but they do seem heavy from the weight of the memories in their care—to me, it’s as though they wandered into a dreamlike forest and never fully reemerged.”

Head over tonight from 6:00pm to 9:00pm to scope out her work!

Flatcolor Gallery does an ace thing once again, with Obsessive Repulsive, curated by Ryan Bubnis! Bubnis, alongside Jesse Reno and Skinner, will be displaying new works that are simultaneously adorable and depressing/brutal, and the freedom each of them has when creating new forms is evident. Check out some images from the show below…

… and once you’re done with that, here’s some really exciting news…
CHECK OUT OUR BRAND NEW INTERVIEW WITH SKINNER!

ryan bubnis

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jesse reno

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skinner

Seattle street artists No Touching Ground, NKO, and Dan Hawkins crafted a tomb project last year, which was a “case study in the archeology of memory.”

CLICK HERE TO READ JEN GRAVES’ ARTICLE IN THE STRANGER ABOUT THE PROJECT.

That particular project was a bit hidden to the public, but the three artists now want to work together with the ever-supportive 4culture to recreate this installation in a way that is accessible and open to the public. The New Mystics were previously behind projects like the Bridge Motel, the Belmont, Moore: Inside Out, and the Corner: 23rd & Union, so if you enjoyed those pieces of public art, please think about donating to their Kickstarter campaign. The goal is to collect $2,000 for the public installation, which will be made live on April 4th, 2011 at Gallery 4Culture (101 Prefontaine Place S., Seattle, WA).

CHECK OUT THE KICKSTARTER AND SUPPORT PUBLIC ART!

Now at pun(c)tuation (705A East Pike St., Seattle, WA), are sculptural works by Keith Murakata. The series is heavil centered around comic book character Captain America, who, according to Wikipedia, first appeared in Marvel Comics’ 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics as an “… intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II.” As Murakata takes this classic American image and turns it on its heel, viewers are encouraged to think twice about the current state of the country.

Here are some clips from Murakata’s artist statment:

“Keith Murakata flips the eagle and burns the banner of the strangled stars of this hegemonic, struggling thing called America. Through media sources, cast metals, ceramics, and wood, Murakata creates altered figurative sculptures that reexamine the historical toll these icons symbolize (and enact) upon the American people’s psyche, and their surprising international reach. Each piece blends history with present realities, the factual with the spiritual, and deep, indigenous truths with contemporary compromises.”

“Captain America—concocted to rally military action during WWII—was originally a blue-eyed,
blond-haired soldier wrapped in an American flag. In this exhibit, the Captain, now in bronze, takes on
a haunting, spectral form. The afro-pick was spawned in the turbulent 60s, when American black nationalists and militants deployed black rage and black power while garnering titles such as “the most dangerous group in America”. In Raw Deal, Murakata uses the remnants of a demolished house near the Duwamish River and texts from the time of the 1855 Point Elliott Treaty to explore and expose the betrayal of the First Nations’ land and fishing rights.

These icons have grown far beyond the narrow scope of their intended utility to embody either a polar opposite or a canonized version of their original spirit. Murakata’s work carries us beyond the original and implicit assumptions of these images, allowing a communion with and an illumination of the spirits within.”