Prographica/KDR is pleased to announce two solo exhibitions by local artists Fred Birchman (Seattle) and Kathy Gore Fuss (Olympia). Both artists’ work have been included in numerous group exhibitions at Prographica. This is each artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Fred Birchman is a process-oriented artist and his mixed media works on paper are a pictorial journal. A thread of recurring icons, signature to his visual voice, permeates his work. The layering of imagery plays with notions of space, time, scale, dream worlds, and memory. Sometimes the work is autobiographical, sometimes narrative, other times the narrative is abstracted. Process, construction and intuition are inherent in all of the works included in the exhibition.
“Floor plans define a certain kind of space. They delineate walls, assign doors and windows, and isolate sections of territory for specific purposes. Most of the time they are blueprints for the future. Occasionally they are checkpoints of the present or archives of the past. My drawings serve me in all those ways. They are my doors, my windows and, sometimes, my walls.”
“I love drawing and drawings. Every kind of drawing. Architectural drawing, figure drawing, mechanical drawing, cartoons, doodles on napkins, graffiti, the arc of jet streams, the paths of power lines and the stutter of highway dividers. I’ve tried to include most of them here in these few works from 2017. They are just a segment of a long drawing that I’ve been working on all of my art life. Everyday I see things that knock me out. Drawing is my way of paying attention.” – Fred Birchman, 2017
Fred Birchman is a graduate of Western Washington University and lives and works in Seattle. He had regular solo shows at Francine Seders Gallery until it closed in late 2013. Birchman’s work has also been included in numerous invitational exhibitions including Yesterday’s Tomorrow at the Museum of Northwest Art in LaConner, Washington; West Coast Drawing Show at Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Culver City, California, in 2009; Century 21: Dealer’s Choice at the Wright Exhibition Space in Seattle in 2008 and Making our Mark: Art by Pratt Teaching Artists at the Bellevue Arts Museum (November 10, 2017 – April 8, 2018). In addition, his work has appeared in several Prographica exhibitions, most recently Things That Kill in 2016. Birchman’s work is in the collections of many regional corporations and museums including Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington; the Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner; Washington State’s Arts in Public Places Program; and Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
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Kathy Gore Fuss
The forests of the Pacific Northwest have been the source material for Kathy Gore Fuss’s work for over a decade. The exhibition is entitled, “Providers”
As the exhibition title suggests, “Providers” refers to the forest as a supplier of sustenance and support. Gore Fuss’s intimate, walnut ink on paper paintings pay homage to the irreplaceable value the forests provide us.
“Standing and painting on site for hours over the course of weeks and months opened up new opportunities to renew my relationship with nature.” – Kathy Gore Fuss, 2017
The luxury of being able to revisit the same locations throughout the year has allowed Gore Fuss to develop a deep relationship with her surroundings. She works in the woods carefully watching, waiting for the moment when the light is just right. She simultaneously works on multiple paintings. This approach encourages her to take risks and allows for spontaneity in her mark making. The deep umber tones of the walnut ink embodies the warm glow of the forest. This carefully curated selection of paintings provides a timeless glimpse of the unparalleled beauty of the Pacific Northwest forests.
Kathy Gore Fuss is a graduate of the University of Washington. Her work has been included in numerous shows: among them, the Bellevue Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Prographica, and most recent, the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, where her exhibition, “Arboreal Beauty” is on view through November 6, 2017. She has conducted Artist in Residencies through the Washington State Arts Commission and held adjunct faculty positions at Pacific Lutheran University, The Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College. She is a recipient of an Artist Trust GAP award and has been selected for numerous commissions.
For more information, please contact Kim Clark at info@prographicagallery.com
