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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Elton John Has A Feeding Frenzy at Greg Kucera

Posted by on September 27 at 12:04 PM

SOIL member Chris Engman, a local photographer, was just happy to have his first show at Greg Kucera Gallery this fall. What he couldn’t have known was that Sir Elton would come into the gallery and buy not one, not two, but SIX of his photographs for his personal collection. Word is that these were among the purchases a sedately dressed but obviously Eltonish Elton John bought yesterday at GK in a decisive, entourage-ful shopping spree:

The Artist as Explorer

engma_explorer_p.jpg

Haul

engma_haul_72.jpg

And Ode

engma_ode_p3.jpg

The man has taste. He also bought three Tim Rodas and two Alice Wheelers, including this iconic Wheeler:

wheel_port_4a.jpg

John was on a tight schedule. He stopped by the Katrina-Land show at G. Gibson Gallery, but didn’t have time to really look, so the gallery is sending him a CD of images. (Reportedly, however, John’s serious aftershave stayed at the gallery long after he left.)

Kucera encouraged John to go to the James Harris Gallery and Lawrimore Project (I wish he’d gotten a look at those Anne Matherns!), but John didn’t have time. Happily, at least, Kucera said, none of the other visitors at the Kucera Gallery asked for John’s autograph, or began singing his songs.

Lawrimore joked this morning about the Englishman’s inability to travel the few blocks down to the ID: “Damn. I’m gonna start looking for new property!”


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Wow! How much did Elton John pay for the photos? I love knowing how much an artwork is worth. If Elton John is buying these photos, I'll bet their value will go up a lot!

What great affirmation this must be for Engman, whom I heard give a slideshow presentation/lecture at Crawlspace a while back on his own work, including both Explorer and Ode, giving us behind-the-scenes info on the actual construction and making of the photos (particularly the frightening act of going into a standing position atop that mast). He was really humble and sort of mumbly-fumbly in a cute way, and I thought, Oh, man, this work is pretty solid; I hope he is able to talk about it better in the future.

Well, fuck *me*, right? Engman really worked it the hell out. Congrats to him. I love it when local artists Do Things.

Chris is one of the most TALENTED and HARDWORKING artists I know. This is wonderful and deserved news! You can see more of Chris's work at his website: chrisengman.com

Yay Alice!

Yay Alice indeed! Would somebody please publish her first book soon....

Is there no Alice book? That seems insane to me.


WIth Elton John dropping a wad, the upcoming Stephen Shore show, Monsen at the Henry, a nice show at PCNW, two photo shows in Pioneer Sq., Lawrimore featuring a few photographers - I'm beginning to think there may be hope for photography in this town... maybe some day there'll even be someone willing to have a "serious" photography only gallery here again. If it's good enough for Sir Elton John, it must be good enough for Seattle.

Congrats to the three local photographers... though I really don't get what the fascination is with Tim Roda's work... they sold like hotcakes, so who am I to say.

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