January 15-February 11
Opening Reception: January 14, 2016 @ 4:30-7:30 PM
Vachon Gallery | Monday- Friday | 8:30-4:30 PM
Turning the Sun's Light to Glass, 2009, Sellars.
The Department of Art and Art History is pleased to announce the selection of *Matt Sellars as the 2015 Seattle University Artist in Residence (SUVAIR.) Sellars is interested in the place where human endeavor and nature meet. Working in a variety of mediums, including wood-carving, ceramics, drawing and video, he finds forms that evoke the history of our engagement with the environment, from the desert to the seaport of Seattle. Sellars was born in Boise, Idaho in 1970. Raised in Idaho and Washington State, Sellars moved to Seattle in 1988 to attend Cornish College of the Arts, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts focused on sculpture. He was recently included in the Bellevue Art Museum’s Biennial “Knock on Wood” and has shown at the Schneider Museum (Ashland, OR), Western Gallery (Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA), and the Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID). He is represented by Platform Gallery, Seattle.
The SUVAIR program offers a unique place for an artist to work with scholars and students across disciplines. In regard to the residency, Sellars writes: “As an artist, I feel that it is crucial to my practice to be able to travel and work in areas outside of my studio. This keeps my perspective towards my work fresh….I find it very necessary to go out into the world to draw, shoot video and generally consider how the greater world balances my art. I think that doing an artist residency at Seattle University will be an ideal way to take my work out of the familiar atmosphere of my studio and into an environment where I might work with new materials, be more interactive with the public with regards to my process and exchange ideas with others outside of the art world.” Sellars plans to work with fabric and leather, in addition to the materials he normally uses, and to draw on a daily basis. He believes that drawing is the most important thing an artist can do to maintain a connection to the art making practice. During the residency, Sellars plans on developing work that responds to the rapid urban development of Capitol Hill and the area surrounding Seattle University. Matt will connect with students and faculty in different disciplines with a public lecture, classroom visits, open studio hours, and a public exhibition of the work he creates while in residence. He hopes “to make objects, drawings, paintings and video that reflect upon academic pursuit and what it is to better oneself through knowledge.”
Free of charge and open to the public.
* Residency made possible by the Pigott Family Endowment for the Arts
Presented by ARTS at Seattle U. www.seattleu.edu/arts | 206-296-5360