Art of Commerce: Bravern New World

As the fashion-forward crowd funneled into the Fashion’s Night Out VIP room at the Bravern’s first birthday party on September 10, two cars pulled into the circular driveway of Bellevue’s ritziest new mixed-use complex. One was a lime Lamborghini; next to it was a yellow VW New Beetle. Together, they symbolized the new Bravern philosophy: top quality and a range of prices.

Built during the sky’s-the-limit boom, the Bravern originally signified nothing but the best. Now the Bravern is also emphasizing its recession-friendly values. Instead of a trophy sports car, how about a Guinness-flavored treat from Trophy Cupcakes? Instead of a fifty-two-dollar six-ounce flute of Krug champagne at John Howie, how about three ounces of Caposaldo prosecco for five dollars? 

Art is part of Bravern’s new image, too. Around the corner from Julian Voss-Andreae’s bigger-than-human sculpture Quantum Man, meant to wow the Microsoft elite who work in the Bravern’s towers, two scrappy street artists put their work on T-shirts and totes as fast as they could.

“It’s about time the emerging artists of this city, the ones with new ideas and their finger on the pulse, got recognized,” said one of those artists, Seattle graffiti eminence Weirdo. “My piece is a photo-real skull with gold fungal species growing from it, all done in Louis Vuitton or Gucci colors in spray paint. There’s that whole Alexander McQueen influence there.” Though he negotiated a fee of more than two hundred dollars for his work – “Hey, I’m thirty in April, I can’t afford to slack” – Weirdo did the gig on behalf of the charity Hopelink. In a year, the Bravern has raised at least one and a half Lamborghinis’ worth of funds for charity.

Open Satellite curator Yoko Ott thinks the Bravern could go further. “There are so many fallow spaces, with big vinyl branding signage around them,” said Ott over the phone from her gallery. “It would be a perfect place to do an art show, like the Station in Miami. Merge really high-end design with savvy, totally chic work in a well-designed showroom. Instead of Fashion’s Night Out, it would be Artists’ Night Out.” •