The Immortal Arts: Bellevue Galleries Push Publishing

The Eastside art world has pulled ahead of Seattle in one crucial area: art books. “I mean, we do way more publishing than Seattle Art Museum and Tacoma Art Museum and the Henry,” says Bellevue Arts Museum artistic director Stefano Catalani, whose latest show catalog, Lisa Gralnick: The Gold Standard (right, top), is rolling off the press. “At the beginning, we did two or three a year. These are hard times, but we’re trying to do one a year.” 

Yoko Ott, the director of Bellevue’s Open Satellite, just launched Open Satellite Publications with Meiro Koizumi, which documents the artist’s recent residency and exhibition The Corner of Sweet and Bitter and features essays by Ott, the Frye Museum’s Robin Held and Stranger art critic Jen Graves. The series’ second book documents Eric Fredericksen’s upcoming Heather and Ivan Morison show (April 27–June 19). “Writing is part of their practice, so it’s a natural fit,” says Ott of the books’ contributors.

Why publish a book at all? “Because not everyone is able to come see the exhibit,” says Ott. Catalani adds, “It survives the exhibition. You’re going to see it on the tables of directors or curators or the shelves of libraries and bookstores. It is a way for me to foster Northwest art.”

Ott’s publication program is a partnership with ex-Seattleite Matthew Stadler, who now operates Publication Studio out of a space in Portland’s überhip Ace Hotel. “We’ve created a publishing house/printer/bindery with less than three thousand dollars,” says Stadler, who took advantage of the recession to pick up the equipment on the cheap. “It also helps to have the zero-cash lifestyle I prefer,” he adds.

“I can get all the design work done, preorder a set amount of books, and from here on out do them print-on-demand,” says Ott. “It greatly reduces cost – it’s much more sustainable. What Matthew is doing is brilliant.”

For both directors, a book is the key to artistic immortality. “It remains as a document,” says Catalani, “and a monument.” •

Monumental documents: art books from publishing giant Bellevue Arts Museum