Storme Webber: Casino: A Palimpsest / Alison Marks: One Gray Hair

Storme Webber: Casino: A Palimpsest

The Frye Art Museum proudly presents Casino: A Palimpsest, the first museum solo exhibition of Seattle-based performance artist and poet Storme Webber. Through family photographs, archival records, and poetry, Webber unearths a personal history of one of the oldest gay bars on the West Coast, the Casino. As with a palimpsest, on which writing that has been erased remains visible under new script, the historical documents in this exhibition reveal some of the many histories that lie beneath Seattle’s streets.

Beginning in the late 19th century, saloons, bars, and diners on Seattle’s Skid Row (present-day Pioneer Square) provided a haven for poor folks, lesbian mothers, urban and displaced Natives, gay servicemen, working girls, hustlers, achnucek (two spirits), butches, femmes, drag queens, and the city's working class, long before the creation of "safe spaces" for LGBTQ people. Establishments such as the Double Header, the Busy Bee Café, and the Casino—all located near the corner of South Washington Street and Second Avenue South—provided refuge for many, including Webber's own family. In a city where history is vanishing daily, Webber's work stands as a corrective witness, seeking to restore narratives that have been lost in the evolving myth of Seattle.

In addition to the objects and documents on view, a series of dynamic programs, including performances, readings, and workshops occurring throughout the duration of the exhibition will incorporate the performative and collaborative aspects of Webber’s practice.

Alison Marks: One Gray Hair

In her first museum solo exhibition, One Gray Hair, Alison Marks directly challenges a commonly held assumption that Native art is inherently spiritual; her art asserts that Indigenous identity and expression is shaped as much by humor and available materials as it is by tradition. Marks, a Tlingit artist, is a passionate advocate for the health of the Tlingit language and culture. Her work fuses the seamless, flowing lines, trigons, and ovoids that create formline—the distinctive aesthetic of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples of Southeast Alaska—with non-traditional materials, tools, and techniques as means to engage with the evolving complexities posed by transcultural exchange in the 21st century.

Whether using humor to counter the patriarchal and racial bias of the art historical cannon, employing emojis and the language of social media to confront Natives’ reliance on technology, or addressing the endless appropriation of the totem pole, Marks creates work that functions as both a window and a mirror. Marks allows us to see present-day Tlingit culture through her eyes while allowing the world to see itself as it appears to a Tlingit woman, planted in the uneven terrain between tradition and assimilation, and always ready with a laugh.

About the exhibitions 
Storme Webber: Casino: A Palimpsest and Alison Marks: One Gray Hair are Raynier Institute & Foundation exhibitions organized by the Frye Art Museum and curated by Miranda Belarde-Lewis. Webber and Marks are the 2015 recipients of the James W. Ray Venture Project Award, which is funded by the Raynier Institute & Foundation through the Frye Art Museum | Artist Trust Consortium. The award supports and advances the creative work of outstanding artists living and working in Washington State and culminates in an exhibition at the Frye Art Museum.