Through May 19
Collapse: Recent Works by Dewey Crumpler
In one of Dewey Crumpler’s recent paintings from the “Container” series, a big cargo ship sinks into the sea. One side of its gray belly reaches up to the sky as if begging for mercy. The containers it holds will soon crash into the water. Gray clouds leak a yellow, toxic-looking sludge into the ocean. Crumpler, associate professor of painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, doesn’t paint a pretty picture of this merciless, apocalyptic wasteland we live in, but rarely was an ugly truth painted so beautifully.
Hedreen Gallery
Through June 2
Aïsha in Wonderland
Nothing is what it seems in the work of Italian-Senegalese artist Maïmouna Guerresi. The robes worn by her subjects, mostly family or friends from Senegal, are actually sculptures from cloth, referring to Muslim and African garbs and traditions as well as the Madonnas of classical art. And the subjects’ bodies do not represent physical, specific beings; they’re vessels for the cosmic divine. The artist, born to an Italian Catholic family, converted to Sufi Islam about three decades ago. This mystical journey emanates from her intriguing body of work.
Mariane Ibrahim Gallery
May 3–31
A Lone
To those who know the contemporary curatorial platform Vignettes, formerly known for one-night-only art shows, and Gramma, publisher of fresh local poetry, their union makes sense. The local powerhouses team up to organize a citywide exhibition of “empathic” visual and word-based art by local and international creatives. Seattle-based Laura Sullivan Cassidy will host a daily hotline, large-scale text works will brighten up traffic-clogged parts of town and a poetic audio tour will make you look at the city with fresh eyes.
Citywide
Through Aug. 19
José Guadalupe Posada and the Mexican Penny Press
Mexican artist, printmaker and illustrator José Guadalupe Posada died penniless in 1913 and was buried in a pauper’s grave. It seemed like the world had forgotten about his contributions to Mexican publications and art with his popular, satirical representations of calaveras, or skeletons. Even in Mexico, well into the 1940s his work never received the acknowledgement it deserved. Although scholars now recognize him as the father of modern Mexican art and an influence on luminaries such as Diego Rivera, his work remains little known in the U.S.
