Chatwin Arts in Pioneer Square wraps up its first full year on the gallery scene with a group show called What’s the Story? The paintings, photographs, and sculptures on view have one quality in common: they strongly suggest a narrative, and leave the viewer to imagine what that story might be.
The curator for What’s the Story? is Dale Cotton. He’s no stranger to Pioneer Square or to the regional arts scene: he was the director at the Linda Hodges Gallery throughout the final decade of its run. If the 2023 closing of the much-loved Linda Hodges left a tear in the neighborhood’s fabric, the opening of Chatwin Arts later in the year began the mending process. (There’s a story behind Chatwin Arts, too, but first things first.)
One of the show’s signature images is Candace Doyal’s Maternal Aim. With its in-your-face attitude and provocative characters, the (mostly) black-and-white photograph is a natural focal point. Its two formidable figures sit and stand front and center in the image, and they very clearly have stories to tell. But their confrontational pose says their stories are none of your business. Pose is the operative word: this is a staged portrait after all, not street photography. You can take the portrait as a variation on American Gothic but with Second Amendment rights and lots of asphalt. The vintage vehicle in the background could tell some stories, but the central question here may be the relationship between the two bad-ass characters staring us down.
Compare Maternal Aim to Riley Doyle’s oil painting, Three Watchers. Here again the white wall of an outbuilding frames the foreground subjects, but this time the figures are unaware that they are subjects. A woman stands in full sun, but she has turned her back to the artist’s gaze; the men’s faces are in full or partial shadow, difficult to read. (The interplay of shadow and light is likely Doyle’s true subject.) The mower and the patio grill place us in a banal domestic setting—until you notice the cacti, and the fact that they are props. These are clues that the scene is less mundane than it first appears. Other clues: incongruous explosions of color in the clear blue sky. There has to be more to that story.
For a contrast to these first two pieces we have Wendolin Wohlgemuth’s Departure. The painting lacks any human figure that we might wonder about or identify with. The image is depersonalized, unfocused, abstracted. To this viewer its mood is ominous. (Post 9/11, dread readily attaches to almost any image of a jet in flight.) Destruction and disruption are central to Wohlgemuth’s image making process. In this way his work echoes that of Gerhard Richter, a clear influence on the Portland-based painter. His restless and multi-layered approach to painting gives rise to a surprising depth of expression.
Several artists have multiple pieces in the show, among them are the painters Abigail Drapkin and Conrad Brudi. Drapkin’s two contributions could be from two different artists; of those, A Still Life is the one that most suggests a story. (By the way, the painting is not a still life.) Its high-angle viewpoint and unusual composition put forward a certain reading of the scene: the female figure is literally looked down upon and overshadowed; she is literally cornered. The still life elements surrounding her offer subtle commentary on the action (or inaction).
Conrad Brudi is less concerned with realist figure painting than with conjuring up a dream-like tableau with a curious rough texture. His titles—like Robbers at the Rancho Bravo—at least offer hints about the scenarios depicted. Then again, the title Cody’s Lullaby Aboard the Commerce seems to refer to an outside work (an old novel or film perhaps) that would contextualize the painting if not explain it. But if the title is a pointer, I don’t get the reference—neither does ChatGPT—and I suspect it’s a false lead. Oh well. It’s best to exercise one’s own imagination anyway, a lesson this group show happily reinforces.
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Somewhere in a deeper recess of the Chatwin Arts space (past an “Employee’s only” sign), you’ll see a large letterpress printer. It belongs to a notable publisher of books, posters, prints, and more: namely Chatwin Books. (Like Chatwin Arts, it is named after the late great travel writer Bruce Chatwin.) To see some Chatwin titles, just cross First Avenue and visit Arundel Books.
It’s a beautiful old space stocked with the things book-lovers and art-lovers dream of. On their shelf of Chatwin Books, look for Candace Doyal’s Thin Coffee and Secondhand Smoke, a memoir that melds Doyal’s photography with her Bukowski-inspired prose. Or pick up Viral Murals, about the artists whose colorful murals brought positive messages to the boarded-up storefronts in Seattle during the pandemic lockdown.
The owner of Arundel Books is Phil Bevis, who is also—with illustrator Annie Brulé—a co-founder of Chatwin Books and Chatwin Arts. We are fortunate that Bevis, Brulé, and their creative partners (Dale Cotton included) have brought such vitality to their corner of Pioneer Square. “We are publishers, designers, artists, printers, gallerists, and bookmakers who specialize in bringing ideas to life,” says their website. Their story is worth following, and we hope for even more chapters to come.
Tom McDonald
Tom McDonald is a writer and musician living on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
What’s the Story? is on view Wednesday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through end of November, at the Chatwin Arts, located at 323 First Avenue South in Seattle, Washington. For further information, visit www.chatwinarts.com.
