Suquamish sculptor Bob Lucas will display a small group of his mixed media works in the Alexis Hotel, 1007 First Avenue, during the months August Through November.

  The work in this Alexis Hotel exhibition consists of one work from Bob's Whirlygig series, knetic sculptures which include wind powered elements, as well as three pieces from a recently completed Cairn series. Cairns are ancient stacks of stones which act as guide posts and ceremonial markers.

  These works have included three to four foot concrete blocks and spheres with various materials protruding from their surfaces including small fused glass paintings featuring quirky psychological narratives, often concerned with the dynamics of the struggle between men and women and the supreme role of Women as The Creator. Lucas recently began to market a series of miniature cast glass and glycerin soap Goddesses.

  In addition to traditional media, Mr. Lucas is a video art enthusiast and has exhibited his works in private galleries and on public access TV for the past three years.

  Mr. Lucas has exhibited in several west coast museums including the Seattle Art Museum, the Boise Art Museum, the Watcom County Museum and the Frye Art Museum. His work was recently included in a deluxe catalogue of work from the collection of US Ambassador to the Slovak Reublic, Mr. Ralph Johnson. In this distinguished publication Lucas takes a place in between Artists Roy Litchenstein and Robert Rauschenberg.

Alexis Hotel Hallway

  Native American artists Lillian Pitt and Larry Ahvakana, will exhibit a series of etchings, woodcuts and monoprints in the Artwalk hallway of the Alexis Hotel during the months of August and September.

   Pitt, who lives in Portland, Oregon and was a recipient of the Governor's Award of the Oregon Arts Commission, is known nationally and internationally for her Raku and Anagama fired ceramic and bronze masks and "Shadow Spirit" totem images based on traditional symbols and spirits of her Columbia River ancestors. One recurring image, "She Who Watches", is based on a Columbia River petroglyph which represents the last of the Woman Chiefs. This image is seen in mask form, in etchings and in the faces of clay and silver jewelry pieces that the artist adds to her wide repertoire.

  Her work has been exhibited and written about extensively in the U.S., New Zealand, Germany and Japan. In addition to the Oregon Governor's Award, Pitt's work has been commissioned by numerous museums and organizations and is in several collections, including the University of Washington's Burke Museum, the Sapporo City Hall, Sapporo, Japan and the prestigious Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ. A retrospective of Ms. Pitt's work was exhibited last year at the Museum at Warm Springs on her native reservation in Oregon. It is scheduled to travel to other Native American museums.

  Mr. Ahvakana, formerly of Barrow Alaska, close to the Arctic Circle, and now living in Suquamish, is also a major figure among contemporary Native artists. Educated at Cooper Union, Rhode Island School of Design (where he worked with Dale Chihuly) and the Institute of American Indian Art, his exhibition history reaches back to 1974 and includes showings at the Field Museum in Chicago, The Heard Museum in Phoenix, The Smithsonian Institute, the U.S. Capital Rotunda, The Seattle Art Museum and Jeffrey Moose Gallery. Mr. Ahvakana is known primarily for his large scale sculpture in marble, wood, metal and mixed media, but in this show he displays his rarely seen talent as a printmaker. The woodcut designs are based on traditional Inupiaq people and Arctic animals and have a charm and spontanaety that is not found in his sculptural work.

  Mr. Ahvakana has achieved a reputation which sets him apart from other native artists, indeed from the entire field of contemporary artists, with his masterful application of traditional themes in contemporary media and styles. A 1995 retrospective at the Anchorage Museum was a major turning point in his career. The show featured sixteen pieces of work ranging from totemic wall mounted plaques which included images of animals and people (and inserts of stone, metal and glass) to life size alabaster figures and cast bronze animals. In a catalogue note by former Seattle Art Museum curator Patterson Sims, it is stated that Ahvakana's work "...shifts between and bridges heritage and novelty. His art renders contemporaneously a way of life entwined with the past. As a Native American, he exists both at the foundation and at a distance from contemporary life and culture."

  Please direct any questions or inquiries to Jeffrey Moose, Curator of the Alexis Hotel and the Painted Table Restaurant and Director of Jeffrey Moose Gallery, ph. 206.467.6951 or e-mail to: jmoose@oz.net