Making their mark at Cornish, in Seattle and beyond
"Cornish College Alumni Exhibition" is, surprisingly, the first such survey, and one hopes it won't be the last, partly because it's so enjoyable and partly because successor events could have more historical examples and be accompanied by more readable and informative labels.
Cornish professor of art Bonnie Biggs has done a yeoman's job of pulling together paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures by more than 60 graduates of the school founded in 1914 by Nellie Cornish. Progressive at the time in its emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration among all the arts, Cornish drew avant-garde teachers such as dancer Martha Graham, composer John Cage and painter Mark Tobey, as well as more traditional teachers like William Cumming.
Unlike the University of Washington School of Art (founded in 1919), which has produced nationally and internationally prominent artists such as Dale Chihuly, Chuck Close, Claudia Fitch, Michael Lucero and Patti Warashina, Cornish's art teachers have usually been more famous than their students. A few grads, like Joseph Park, have exhibited abroad. And Kumi Yamashita, who shows in New York, wasn't able to send a piece in time for this exhibit.
That said, there are some small treasures in store for interested viewers. Unfortunately, Biggs hasn't included any dates of individual artworks on the labels, so it's impossible to trace any historical trajectory. Comic figurative-narrative painting, abstract painting, mixed-media printmaking and conceptual photography seem the four dominant strains, with fine examples in each category.
Among the storytelling painters, Rich Lehl, Molly Norris Curtis, Erik Geschke and Ben Darby sent strong examples. Figures in amusing-to-bizarre settings often border on surrealism, either with Lehl's floating man walking a dog, or Geschke's eerie pencil drawing of a goofy guy in "Olestra," named after the controversial no-cal fat substitute. Darby's "Rubber Chicken Mandala" is the largest work on view at 6 feet square; it's a big, zany and colorful composition with radiating cast-rubber poultry in a big sunflower pattern.
Abstract painting started at Cornish with Tobey. Recent practitioners such as Alicia Berger, Auburn Lahoski, Andrea Murphy and Junko Yamamoto are less original, though fully competent at their gestural undertakings.
Small landscapes by Kathryn Altus, Sarah Bergmann, Matthew Rempel and Thomas Wood fare better with more modest, realistic approaches.
Tight conceptual and symbolic images are toyed with by printmaker-collaborators Jamisen Ogg and Brad Ewing. Their "Future of Iraq Program" is sleek and stylish, even if its title is utterly irrelevant to what the print looks like.
Straightforward color and black-and-white photography has its strengths, too, in examples by Brian Burton, Lyn McCracken and Sarah McKinney. The latter's four portraits of friends use clear tape to hideously and amusingly alter each sitter's facial features.
The few sculptures on view are both original and funny. David Herbert's absurd and brilliant cardboard construction of an antique three-masted sailing ship, "S.S. Marie Antoinette," shows promise, as does Bryan Smith's "Void Excess," constructed entirely of torn-and-glued pieces of cardboard boxes. A huge carved head of the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti by Shawn Nordfors has a startling impact with its black hair that seems created by the deep gouges of a power tool.
Without any dates of individual works on the labels, let alone a catalog or curatorial statement from Biggs, "Cornish College Alumni Exhibition" is not in any way definitive but, with the many intriguing works of art on the walls, it's at least a start at understanding how much the small institution has meant to the city's overall cultural life.
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