The Material Calls: Artists-in-Residence at the James and Janie Washington Cultural Center

Exhibition Dates: June 20-September 29
Exhibition Site: Hedreen Gallery, Lee Center for the Arts at Seattle University
901 12th Avenue (12th and Marion) Seattle, WA 98122

The Hedreen Gallery proudly announces The Material Calls, an exhibition organized in collaboration with the James and Janie Washington Cultural Center. A tribute to the call of materials–physical, emotional, social, and spiritual, this exhibit features selected works by James Washington Jr. and 21 artists who have participated in residencies at the James and Janie Washington Cultural Center over the last 5 years.

James Washington Jr. (1909-2000) stands out as one of the most prominent African-American artists of the 20th century. Arriving in Seattle as part of the diaspora of Southern Black people, Washington worked during and after WWII as both an electrician and a cobbler. Over the next two decades, he devoted after hours-time to painting and sculpting finally quitting his day jobs in 1960. By the late 60’s, he had placed an estimated six hundred of his sculptures in museums and private collections. He engaged directly in the Civil Rights Movement and published extensively on issues concerning arts, race, and spirituality. In 1989, the Bellevue Art Museum held a major retrospective exhibition of paintings and sculpture, The Spirit in the Stone: The Visionary Art of James W. Washington, Jr. In the same year, he was recognized as a Northwest Master Artist by the King County Arts Commission.

Well before Washington's death, his home and studio were designated a historical landmark and he endowed a Foundation to carry on his belief in the central role of art as a source of inspiration. Today that Foundation is the James and Janie Washington Cultural Center. The Center is dedicated to supporting exceptional emerging visual artists by providing them with time and space to create during one-month residencies. Artists are provided with the equipment, space, and technical assistance to make sculpture on a scale which might otherwise be unaffordable, in a setting conducive to experimentation. The Center also features archives that include correspondence, sketchbooks, awards, poetry, photographs, video and audio recordings, manuscripts, and a library containing thousands of books and journals that reflect the broad range of Washington’s historic, philosophical, artistic, and social interests.

The Material Calls contributing artists include: Jite Agbro, Ellen Berdinner, Romson Regarde Bustillo, Marita Dingus, Joe Max Emminger, Esther Ervin, Christian French, Seth Friedman, Michael Harrsion, Paris Hurley, Cyra Jane, Isabella Leary, Christen Mattix, Paul D. McKee, Nickolus Meisel, Daniel Minter, Charles Parrish, Reza Safavi, June Sekiguchi, Garric Simonsen, Meghan Trainor and Dr. James Washington Jr.

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