Past Awardees
2011 CGG Recipient - Rio Pacific Studio (Jen Vertz, Jeff Jacobson)
Congratulations Jen and Jeff!
Have you walked or driven down 2nd Avenue in Pioneer Square recently? Did you happen to see the massive hyper-realistic mural, Emerge, on the side of the Metropole building? Ever visit the 4th floor of the 619 Western Building on a First Thursday or attend the annual urban art celebration, Artoleptic?
If so, you’ve witnessed the work of Rio Pacific Studio – “Little” Jen Vertz and Jeff “Weirdo” Jacobson.
Jen and Jeff have lived and worked together in the Square since 2006. Their impact on the community has been significant. They regularly provide opportunities for other artists to showcase their work and build positive relationships with the viewing public. They organize Artoleptic, transform forgotten spaces with colorful, dynamic murals, and work with the Alliance for Pioneer Square, local businesses and other organizations to energize and promote the health and wellbeing of the neighborhood.
2010 CGG Recipient - Kelly Lyles
Congratulations Kelly!
Even if you don’t know Kelly personally, you'll probably recognize her photo. She had her first Seattle exhibition in Pioneer Square in 1982, at The Prints and The Pauper and has since planted deep-roots in the community. Her representational (and often humorous) paintings are regularly on view – ranging from punny views of animals crossed with ‘all-American’ products like Mice-A-Roni, Benson & Hedgehogs, and Star-Ducks Coffee, to watercolors of historical and mythological figures.
Kelly’s flamboyant persona and attention-getting ArtCars are staples at First Thursday and art events around the city. She considers her embellished vehicles “rolling canvases, the ultimate public art”. Perhaps you have seen the Excessories Odd-yssey, a Honda van covered with women’s fashion accessories (jewelry, purses, shoes, belts, sunglasses and more) on the road or at the Seattle ArtCar Blowout, which she founded and has produced for the past 11 years.
And yes, there is more…Lyles also extends her considerable talents and adventurous spirit to organizations such as the Fremont Arts Council, SIFF, multiple local theaters, and as an art instructor at Bellevue College. But perhaps she is best known for her massive email list, to which she forwards visual arts information and opportunities – keeping us all in the loop.
Come and celebrate with Kelly as she is honored on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 6 – 8pm, at 4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Place South, Seattle, WA 98104.
2009 CGG Recipient - Sheri Brown
Sheri Brown in a Diego Pinon butoh workshop performance. © Briana Jones
Congratulations Sheri Borwn!
Sheri Brown has lived in Pioneer Square since 2002, teaching, making work, living in art-focused communities, and producing shows for First Thursday. Brown’s artistic practice revolves around butoh, a Japanese art form she discovered in 2001, after 11 years practicing theater and street performance. Butoh evolved from student rebellions after World War II, as a method to challenge social norms and established ideals in search of a purer force beyond westernization and modernization. Brown felt the history and practice of the form satisfied her need to explore and express her interdisciplinary practice and ideals.
“As a conscientious objector to mass media,” explains Brown, “my work with butoh stands up in stark contrast to consumer culture. It begs to look beyond society’s surface to the darker, undercurrent root of authentic creative process, and the initial impetus for the creative act. With increasing intentionality, my work in butoh strives to reconnect the lives of everyday people through radical performance art.”
Inaugural Recipient - Johnathan Heath Lambe
Congratulations to Heath, winner of the first Conductive Garboil Grant!
At the June 11th Grant Launch Event (left to right): Cath Brunner of 4Culture, Inaugural CGG winner Johnathan Heath Lambe, and Lynn Schirmer for the Estate of Su Job.
Johnathan Heath Lambe AKA Maxx Lexington received his BFA in Sculpture and Video from Cornish College of the Arts in 2008. He has exhibited his work around the city in galleries and alternative venues including the Erotic Art Festival at Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall, Blue Vertical Studio, X17 Gallery, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Gallery 154, Marcus' Martini Bar, and Secluded Alley Works among others. His video work has been screened at Reeling LGBT International Film Festival in Chicago, IL and Shriveled Eyeballs Video Festival here in Seattle. His media installation "This Is What Democracy Building Looks Like" caught the eye of Su Job when it was exhibited in 2006 at Blue Vertical Studios in the Tashiro Kaplan Building in Pioneer Square.
"This Is What Democracy Building Looks Like" exhibit encompassed the entire 1000+sf interior galley space of BVS in the TK building, with 2284 white index each printed with the name, rank, branch of service and date of death of U.S soldiers that have giving their life for their country in the Iraq war as of March 2006. At the same time a video of images of war and war statistics all edited to music of Prez. George W. Bush quotes was projected on my person as I stood on a soap box, tape over my mouth while pulling white index cards out of an ammo box and tossing them to the ground. This video was then projected over two 20’ glass windows that punched through the gallery space to the streets-cape below. On the street below a matching set of red cards bled out from under the windows into the street. 2284 red index cards laid on the sidewalk and the roadway demanding attention. People could walk over the cards with out noticing them, if they did not wish to walk over the red cards then they had to cross the street where they could not help but look at the video that was projected through the windows.
Visit Heath's website.