First Thursday: August

So it's official: Seattle's First Thursday kicks Oakland Art Murmur's ass. Perhaps we jumped in at a really good one, but every gallery we went to had breathtakingly amazing and inspiring art. A very nice welcome to a new city!

The first gallery we went to was featuring the poster art of Jeff Kleinsmith, 10+ year art director at Sub Pop Records and all-around nice guy (I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet with him in the Spring while I was job hunting).

It was amazing to see his original screenprints hanging Salon-style all over the gallery walls. Highlights for me were the Built to Spill shark poster (above), and the Decemberists poster below:

What a great sense of color!
I'd love to have a job designing fun music posters all day.

After seeing Jeff's work, we ventured into a labyrinthian space full of studios and galleries, and chock-full of art. There was a lot of amazing work that evening, but unfortunately my camera couldn't keep up with all of it!

I was obsessed with these amazing embroidery pieces by Diem Chau (embroidered translucent fabric, stretched over porcelain plates, bowls, and cups). If only I have $400...

Outside of another gallery these lovely ladies did a performance piece dressed in pastel fairy clothing.

The last gallery of the night was Tether, a design-oriented gallery with an actual design firm in the back (my kind of people!). They were hosting a show called Thunderbitch, featuring women in rock poster art.

This poster for Sera Cahoone was definitely a stand-out (unfortunately I didn't write down the designer, if anyone knows let me know and I'll link them!). Can you believe that's a screenprint?

Right after we walked into the gallery, Damien Jurado began performing onstage. (I think I found my new favorite musician!). These albums were for sale, packaged with an original Tether-designed and printed poster, letterpressed in the gallery! I'm hoping I'll get to play around on the press in the near future :)

Overall, an amazingly inspiring night. I'm looking forward to September!