Housekeeping On the Cover of The Stranger This Week
posted by on April 10 at 1:53 AM
The painting on the cover this week is by Tram Bui, who has had a show up at Davidson Galleries until March 29 (but one piece, Battery, is still on view; follow the link to see it). This one on the cover is titled 2903. Jen Graves, in a profile of Bui from March 2006, explains: “Every one of her paintings is a portrait of a real building under construction around town. Seen in a group, this becomes rather obvious, since the titles are either numbers or street names.” Graves goes on to explain:
Bui’s early education was as a representational painter, and she focused on interior scenes. When she got to Seattle in 1999 to attend graduate school in painting at the UW, she had a tiny apartment with no pictorial potential, so she set about making a cityscape, only to realize she was more interested in the construction site in the foreground than the city behind it. Her paintings… strip away all the stray elements in the landscape, leaving only building and sky, mano a mano.
The last time Bui had a painting on the cover was July 20, 2006:
Those are both really beautiful images, the typography is very well balanced, and the color choices are unexpected and smart. Nice work.
It's a beautiful image, but since its subject matter (condos/new construction) is bad I'm sure it's only a matter of days until we hold a contest for the most creative, symbolic way to destroy it.
I'm starting my essay now.
Tram Bui is a local treasure. I wish I could afford a piece.
one-trick pony.
@4 - But it's a pretty damn good trick!
I went to high school with a girl named Tram. She was weird.
This cover makes me miss Dale Yarger that much more.
The show ends May 3, not March 29. It's still up right now.
Oops. The show actually IS over, I was mistaken. There is still one piece of hers hanging in the gallery, though, and several more in the back.
Ya hear that, Yarger?
I know what I wish was on the cover...a substantial endowment!!!
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