The Seattle Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art and a showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest.

Result #1

We are proud to provide the Northwest with one of the most competitive art venues in the world, and we hope that our efforts will be well received by the visitors.John C. Thompson is a contributing editor of Artforum. He is a frequent contributor to Artforum.Translated from the German by Alexander Scrimgeour.

Result #2

The simultaneous presentation of these two years of works by 37 artists in 34 different cities will no doubt affect those who are sensitive to the sexual politics of contemporary art. It is very unlikely that a single artist could have done the same. It is sad that a parade of artists of any size can be held so quickly and so often, and its a sad commentary on the fact that so many artists are so unaware of and alienated from the complexities and consequences of their work.

Result #3

The Seattle Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art and a showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest. And in a city with a history of anti-art, one could not help but be struck by the strong local support for the art of the Northwest, a well-earned advantage. The city has become the most visited in the world for contemporary art and is home to one of the worlds most visited art fairs, held annually in the citys Exposition Park. Seattle is also the host city for the first-ever Pacific Rim art fair. Organized by The Seattle Art Museum, the five-day event is being presented in conjunction with the California Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Los Angeles, which will be the final stop on a five-part trek across the United States and Canada, beginning in New York and ending in San Diego. The Los Angeles version is scheduled for January 5, 1997; in Seattle it will open on December 12.Seattle art aficionados know that the Seattle Art Museum is, in fact, a fictional museum; that is, an imaginary museum that, as such, is closed to the public. But in order to create a visual mythos of the region, the citys mayor, Paul McCarthy, has invited an imaginary group of artists and critics to participate in the creation of a new museum. The concept is a fully operational one, with exhibition, readings, performances, and other events taking place in the museums more than 350 galleries and museums across the city. Curated by Frank Gohlke, the show is a perfect opportunity for local art aficionados to explore the new museum—a major step in the evolution of the museum as an art institution.The Seattle Art Museum is an active partner in the creation of this vision. The citys Museum of Contemporary Art is currently experiencing a major expansion that will include a new building and a full-scale restoration of its former parking lot in the citys Capitol Park neighborhood.

Result #4

The Seattle Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art and a showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest. The exhibition brings together works by twenty-two Seattle artists. The themes of choice are the themes of the West: landscapes and landscapes in the West; modern art and modern life; landscape and culture; and the natural world. The show includes a number of outstanding works. But, unfortunately, a few are more familiar than others.The works on display are all from the 80s, and many are more than ten years old. Only two are from the artists lifetime, and none are from the 90s. This is unfortunate, as the overwhelming theme is the same: the gradual erosion of the boundary between art and life. In this light, one might expect that the works in this exhibition have more to do with contemporary art, and that they reflect the changing nature of art. But this is not the case. The main theme of the show is the idea of landscape and culture as the ultimate destination of art. One of the works is a photograph of a riverboat, and it is a photographic image of a society that has lost its individuality and has become a vessel for the purpose of transportation. Another work is a painting of a boat on a boat that has been used by the artist. The boat is in the water, the image is on the canvas. In the painting, the individual boat is in the middle of the landscape, in front of a red-wood fence, which is also red, and in the foreground is a wooded area. The idea of the boat in the middle of the landscape is suggested by another work, a photograph of a group of flat, watery landscapes. In the paintings, the flat, landscapelike landscape is meant to be a reflection on the image, which is now the image on the canvas. The flatness and the landscape are the image and the image. The paintings, however, are not flat, and they are not landscapes. They are landscapes.

Result #5

The Seattle Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art and a showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest. Over the past five years, the Seattle Art Fair has grown to become one of the most popular events in the Northwest. The Century City is an incredible cultural and social hub; its rich history connects generations of artists and cultures. Every year, more than fifty artists from more than fifty countries come to Seattle for the opening of their work. For the opening, the Seattle Art Museum has created a unique and stimulating experience for the public through a massive projection of a film that documents the opening events. In one segment of the projection, a wall of the Century City transforms into a stage, and then ends up a giant hand mirror in the middle of the projection. The film ends with a close-up of the artists hand and of the viewer, reflected in the mirror. This movie sequence is followed by an almost abstract projection of a wide, open hand mirror with a black background. This projection is followed by a short sequence of moving images of the artists themselves. This image of the artists mirrors the film projection, which was projected on the other side of the screen.The film that opens the exhibition is an almost empty movie, with only three or four people, mostly women, gathered in a dark theater. They gaze at the projector. They are mostly dressed in the usual clothes of the theatregoers: hard-hat, hard-hat, tie, etc. They are all wearing matching white gloves and black socks. They are all covered in white and gray wool. The film begins with a roll call of the audience, and after a few minutes of anticipation, a women steps up to the projector. She has just been offered the role of director. She takes a deep breath and says, I will be your director. She walks to the front of the projection room and begins to read her script. She sits down next to the director and says, I am writing this from my heart. The two women have just been offered the role of director. The film continues.The director reads from his script.