Alden Mason In Memorium

"John's Wrecking Yard," mixed media on paper

Alden Mason was a Seattle and Pacific Northwest icon. He died Feb. 6, 2013, but his art lives on.

Since I came here from another party of the country and was not steeped in our regional art traditions and community, I was not familiar with Mason's art until I happened to see a few of his paintings in the Foster/White Gallery in about 2002, which was when they first started representing him. I was blown away by his expressive and deeply encrusted canvases and his quirky figures. His paintings seemed to encapsulate and make his own elements of works by many another artist from de Kooning and Pollock to Picasso and Miro. To my eyes there was a bit of the funky traditions of the Hairy Who group as well.

Mason never had a museum retrospective in his lifetime, but now he's getting it. The show is In Memoriam 1919-2013, and it can be seen at The Wright Exhibition Space from April 25 to June 30. It is curated by Phen Huang from the Foster/White Gallery and Greg Kucera of the Greg Kucera Gallery.


See more of Alden Mason's work.