Foundation of Art at Fulcrum

The Weekly Volcano, Dec. 19, 2013

Installation shot of Foundation of Art exhibition

“Between Wolf and Moon” by Shaun Peterson

A dozen plus one of Tacoma’s most well-known artists are represented in the Sixth Annual Greater Tacoma Community Foundation of Art Award Exhibit with a variety of prints, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures. It’s a cornucopia of every imaginable style and media that can be tastefully crammed into the small Fulcrum Gallery, and not a dull piece in the show.

Artists included in the show are: Sean Alexander, Beautiful Angle, Laurie Cinotto, Scott Haydon, Ellen Ito, Chris Jordan, Nicholas Nyland, Chandler O'Leary, Shaun Peterson, Juliette Ricci, Holly Senn, Kenji Stoll, and Britton Sukys. The plus one is this year’s award winner Shaun Peterson with a stunning and elegant wood and etched glass wall piece called “Between Wolf and Moon,” a Native American legend stylistically symbolized in a work that artfully combines traditional and contemporary styles.

Appropriately Peterson’s work is given a wall all its own in the back gallery. Also in that room is a table filled with posters from Beautiful Angle and Art Chandry (Chandry’s work is another plus).

Among the more striking works is Scott Haydon’s untitled photograph on wrapped canvas of a wide-eyed young boy in a field of tall grass. The lush gray tones and selective focusing in the photograph present a beautiful contrast of sharpness and softness.

Holly Senn’s “Blackbird” is a magnificent nest created of swirling strips of paper cut out of old books and hanging from the ceiling at a slight angle (dare I say beautiful angle?). Like a little tornado whipping through the gallery, it is at once powerful and delicate.

One wall of the front gallery is filled with four Beautiful Angle prints made of a dense overlapping of letters in the richest range of red, brown and black imaginable, showing just how beautiful and emotionally stirring simple block letters printed on a page can be.

Chandler O’Leary’s “Frisko Freeze,” ink and watercolor on paper, is a lovely example of a pop art urban landscape in a style popularized by the photographer Edward Ruscha and by some of David Hockney’s early bright landscapes.

There are also two large, free-standing cloth sculptures created in collaboration by Ito and Nyland that must be seen.

Do yourself a favor and see this show when you can. Gallery hours are limited.

[Fulcrum Gallery, Foundation of Art Award, noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Fridays and by appointment, through Jan. 10, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, 253.250.0520]