Joey Veltkamp's Guide to Seattle's First Thursday Art Walk

Catherine Person has a nice show called PaperWeight, built around creative uses of paper. I especially like the work by recent graduates Bo Young Choi and Justin Lytle.

Justin Lytle, Possession, 2010

SOIL is opening up a collaborative show between Nicholas Nyland and Vesna Pavlovic. Based on found slides of a family’s travels in the 1960s, the artists examine and reprocess concepts of tourism.

(from left) works by Nicholas Nyland and Vesna Pavlovic

Taking his palette from the Arctic/Antarctic regions, Tom Burrows presents a new series of paintings in a show called Polar. His process creates a luminous glow that should pair nicely with these new colors.

Tom Burrows, Moubray Bay, 2010

Acting as an emissary for the upcoming Kurt show at Seattle Art Museum, Gretchen Bennett will debut a new video piece in the Ketcham Forum Gallery. Based on the Cat Power song "I Don’t Blame You," Gretchen creates a love letter to Kurt Cobain (who the song is rumored to be about).

Photo by Joel Kvernmo

And the usual suspects all have great shows up right now:

Lawrimore Project has two great shows: Tivon Rice and Jennie C. Jones.

Tivon Rice, Self Portrait (3 years, 2 months, 10 days), 2006-2009

Howard House continues its retrospective on Mary Henry.

Mary Henry, Untitled (August 26, 1996; Sept. 1, 1996)

Roger Shimomura and Dan Webb have nice shows at Greg Kucera Gallery.

Dan Webb, Sucked In (2010)

Don’t miss Jason Hirata and Alexander Kroll at James Harris Gallery!

Alexander Kroll, Untitled, 2009

Finally, check out visiting artist Michael Schall’s Firefall at Platform Gallery.

Michael Schall, Eidophusikon