Art Beat

The idea of transforming an outdoor site or the interior of a museum/gallery into a work of art itself is now formally classified as environmental or installation art. The objective is to change the viewer’s perspective from looking at a painting or a sculpture, to one of feeling surrounded by and engaged in a wider […]

The much-anticipated show by local artist Rachel Schlueter at the Morris Graves Museum this month is an impressive celebration of the art and artists that have most influenced her meteoric career. The show, A World of Paint, pays homage to over two dozen artists in that most flattering and yet most difficult genre, portraiture. Rachel […]

First Street Gallery kicks off its fall season with the annual HSU Art Department Faculty and Staff Exhibition. The show is all around good and affords an opportunity for students returning to classes this month, as well as the general public, to get an overview of the quality and diversity of instruction offered at Humboldt […]

Extended congratulations to Jack Sewell for a gala opening last month of his new Sewell Gallery at 423 F St. This welcome addition to our art scene includes a wide array of work by some of our finest local artists. In August, that includes a section featuring the paintings of Alicia Tredway — good timing, […]

Claire Iris Schencke’s ambitious exhibit, The Glacier Art Project and At Waters’ Edge, is the culmination of a six-year project sketching glaciers on location from Alaska to Argentina’s Tierra Del Fuego. Helsinki-born, Iris (pronounced “EER-riss”) admits to having always been attracted to water and ice. “I fell in love with glaciers the first time I […]

The term “emerging artists” figures prominently in this month’s Arts Alive! shows.  The phrase is usually ascribed to artists who are beginning to master their craft, and who show promise and devotion to expressing their vision. Imagine a chrysalis opening up to reveal some lovely winged creature — emerging, moving forward. An exhibit titled e·las·tic: […]

One of the benefits of having the Morris Graves Museum in our midst is its ability to mount exhibits from outside our area. Starting on July Arts Alive! the Graves hosts a show called “Fiber Enriched” from California Fiber Artists, a group of diverse independent artists dedicated to promoting fiber art through public exhibitions and […]

Until a few weeks ago, Jack Sewell worked as a part-time nurse at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Eureka while creating his award-winning sculptures in his spare time. He was approaching retirement age and looking forward to more studio hours when his life took an abrupt, unexpected turn. “I got a phone call from Dan Ollivier, […]

The big news in June is North Coast Open Studios, two consecutive weekends when artists throughout the county open their studios and homes, giving you a chance to see much more of an artist’s work than you’d see in any gallery show. “This is a wonderful opportunity for people to meet their favorite artists and […]

Get out your calendar: June is filled with overlapping opportunities to enjoy the visual arts. As usual, Eureka Arts Alive! is on the first Saturday, June 4, and Arts! Arcata on June 11. As noted elsewhere, North Coast Open Studios encompasses two weekends, June 4-5 and 11-12. In Southern Humboldt, the annual Summer Arts and […]

Seventy new paintings. Seventy! That’s what you’ll find at First Street Gallery in this April show packed with watercolors, oils and acrylics by two of Humboldt’s most accomplished painters, Jim McVicker and Steve Porter. The two artists’ work is interspersed in the front galleries, creating a challenging but fun sport of guessing whose is whose. […]