Yellow
Julie Alexander
w/ Nicholas Nyland & Dalani Tanahy

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Exhibition Dates: August 1 - September 22, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 1st, 6-9pm

Specialist Gallery is pleased to present Yellow, an exhibition of new work by Julie Alexander, with Dalani Tanahy and Nicholas Nyland.

For this exhibition, Alexander combines her practice with that of two other artists–Dalani Tanahy and Nicholas Nyland–converting the gallery space from a site for autonomous objects, to an environment where manifold practices cross-pollinate. Rag-washed walls produce the ecosystem in which Alexander’s paintings, fabric constructions, and a bamboo sculpture, can commingle with works by Tanahy and Nyland. 

Tanahy works with kapa, a Hawaiian bark cloth made from the inner fibers of the Mulberry tree. Pounded with handmade tools that leave an embossed texture, the cloth is then printed with ʻohe kapala-bamboo stamps. Tanahy’s work is a combination of history, culture and the Native/global perspective.

Nyland–a ceramicist and multimedia artist–creates work which pulls from a collection of histories, bridging design, craft, and fine art. In Yellow, Nyland’s work aims to examine and challenge notions of gender and high art in ceramics, looking at both the aesthetics of embroidery samplers and the function of the decorative object, and the practices’ perceived feminine tradition.

Viewing her practice both in conjunction and in dialogue with these other artists who share complex relationships to nature and historical practices, Alexander’s Yellow aims to further dialogue and artistic exchange. Because yellow has ambiguous cultural meaning, it is an open space ready for free association. There, yellow is connectivity, a feeling created from the interactions that continue to inform and form us. With Yellow, Alexander constructs a landscape that both encourages and respects continuous dialogue amongst these art objects and their makers. 

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Julie Alexander is a native to the Seattle area and has been a participant in the Seattle art scene for many years. She is a past member of SOIL and a founding member of The Alice, a gallery in Georgetown as well as currently runs Snag, an occasional gallery out of her home. Julie has shown and/or curated in Miami; Brooklyn; Manhattan; Findley, Ohio; Northport, Michigan; Paphos, Cyprus; Paris, France; and Seattle. She has shown in Seattle venues such as Davidson Contemporary, Catherine Person, James Harris, SOIL, The Alice, Valley and Taylor and Out Of Sight. She received an Artist Trust Fellowship in 2006.

Nicholas Nyland has been included in exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest region including the Tacoma Art Museum and Bellevue Art Museum, and has presented public projects at the Olympic Sculpture Park and ALL RISE, Seattle. Nyland is represented by Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle, where his recent solo exhibition was on view in January 2019. Exhibitions outside the region include the 2018 solo exhibition at Bradley University Gallery in Peoria, IL. Nyland received an Artist Trust Fellowship in 2008 and was a finalist for the 2013 Contemporary Northwest Art Award. Recent residencies include stays at the Vermont Studio Center; Ash St Project, Portland; and Chateau Orquevaux, France.

Dalani Tanahy lives in Makaha, O`ahu and is a practitioner and teacher of traditional Hawaiian kapa or bark cloth. She is the owner of a business, Kapa Hawaii, LLC and has been a kapa arts teacher for over 25 years, recently being made the inaugural Master Kumu at the University of Hawaii, West O`ahu in a program that honors indigenous artists and their work by bringing them on campus to teach at the college level. She has done many commissions over the years including works for the Dalai Lama, The Disney Aulani Resort, Hawaiian Airlines Corporate Office, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Bishop Museum and the British Museum.

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Specialist is also pleased to present our Seattle Art Fair edition of Forever Again, a group show of small works by Seattle-based artists in conjunction with our main exhibition.