The Curator's Eye

In less than three years on Capitol Hill, Vermillion has become the hipster gallery of choice. It is very nearly a nightly art opening with curator Diana Adams showing cool cartoonists, debutant photographers and new-guard artists like Troy Gua. Add to that her new hard-liquor license and Adams’ street cred is assured.

Now Adams and co-curator Mark Mueller are showing the old guard in Vermillion’s first show with roots in the era of Mark Tobey and Morris Graves, Northwest Masters, featuring Jay Steensma and Ree Brown. Graves’ student Steensma had a brilliant future predicted for him, only to see it ruined by bipolar disorder. Gallerists physically feared him, with good reason. But he was manically prolific, achieved sanity late in life and got raved about in Art in America and collected by Seattle Art Museum. He died in 1994 at age fifty-two. His surviving partner, Brown, is a self-taught (and Steensma-taught) folk artist who is exhibited from here to New York. 

“This is a huge show for us,” says Adams, “an opportunity for a whole new generation to discover Ree in his later years.” Young art fans should love Brown and Steensma’s DIY aesthetic. Both made art on paper bags, cardboard, whatever was at hand. 

Most people discover Steensma first, then Brown. Adams was the opposite. “My admiration for Ree led me down this path to discover Jay’s work. Ree is the quiet anchor, and every eccentric needs an audience and support system.” She admires the artists’ mix of plain-spun, resonant subjects – cats, birds – and politically charged antiwar passion. And she savors their mutual influence. “People are sponges, and we affect each other in so many delicate, nuanced ways. Partnerships can be intentional or not, and the fluid interaction on every level – physical, emotional – is very intriguing to me.” •

FOCAL POINTS

Pounds of medium used to sandblast Vermillion’s brick wall clean: 1,100

Vermillion’s uses since 1908: Wine distributor, sweatshop, car shop, thrift store

Number of wines under ten bucks: 25

Price of a Picasso print at Henry Gallery, 1960: $75

Price of a xeroxed Steensma drawing, 1985: $5

Amount Graves raised for Steensma’s art supplies by phoning three rich friends in 1965 (in 2010 dollars): $5,383