The MOD - a Kirkland Art Market
The Umbrella Fringe Festival’s inaugural year is sure to be entertaining and eclectic. While there will be plenty of live music and performances, ‘The Mod’ art market featuring vibrant modern works from local and regional artists will also captivate and enthrall festivalgoers. Here’s a selection of just a few of the artists:
ESTHER LOOPSTRA
Esther Loopstra is a Seattle-based artist whose work spans the creative gamut. Her visual pieces include works on canvas and paper as well as mixed-media sculpture. Her performance art includes spoken word, somatic drawing, and acting. Ester’s colorful and dynamic work explores the concept of interconnected living systems that link people to each other and echo life’s rhythms.
Esther’s website states that her “work explores the living structures that support us—both biologically and energetically… she layers textures, materials, words, and motion to create intentionally ambiguous imagery that blurs the boundaries between our internal systems and the natural world.”
https://www.estherloopstra.com/
SIJAE BYUN
Sijae Byun is an artist whose career has spanned the globe. Originally from South Korea, Sijae has worked and exhibited in a wide variety of cities including Seoul, Washington D.C., New York, and Singapore. Her work is an exploration of the reach for harmony in a world that attempts to put boundaries between people and nature. Sijae creates large installation pieces, sculpture, and paintings using a wide variety of materials including intricate paintings on layered silk, complex wooden sculptures, and large, interactive inflatable pieces that she captures on video.
Sijae writes “Conceptually, my artistic process alludes to the veiled identities people construct of themselves, and suggest the most vibrant parts of a person, his or her personality and emotions, exist within the gaps. One must dig deep into the art to understand its essence, like the root that is not easily seen inside the earth… The concept of layered experience is a strong thematic element that I have recently explored in greater depth.”
KHÁNH PHAM
Khánh Pham is a ceramics artist whose work evokes both humor and a classic aesthetic. Her pieces include conventional pottery like vases and jugs but also bowls with tiny creatures hiding inside. The rough texture of some of her work conjures ancient artifacts while her combination of ceramics with 3d printing are on the cutting edge of elegance.
Khánh’s website states that she “finds joy in constantly learning and blending diverse techniques to create whimsical, emotionally resonant work…Her work invites viewers into a magical, narrative world rooted in both personal history and imaginative reinterpretation …[her] ceramics are a celebration of curiosity, imagination, and the enduring magic of handmade art. Through constant experimentation and a drive to share resources, she continues to build a practice that is not only deeply personal but also expansive and inclusive.”
https://mycreativearc.github.io/portfolio/index.html
PHIL STOIBER
Phil Stoiber is a mixed-media artist who has lived and worked in Seattle since 1990. He has a lifelong passion for art inspired by his family’s travels as well as his parents’ creative backgrounds. His current work focuses on paper lithography and chine-collé technique that produce vivid, tiled images evoking maps, locations, experiences, social messages, and human sensations.
Phil’s works have been exhibited throughout Seattle as well as Kirkland in locations including the Washington Convention & Trade Center, the Tashiro Kaplan Building, BallardWorks, and Ryan James Fine Arts. On his website, Phil writes, “Prints challenge me to ask: how is my life unfolding where I am at this moment in time? How consciously do I respect the world I live in?”
SAFI UCHI
Raised on Nooksack tribal lands, Safi is an abstract expressionist painter who uses her art as a medium to increase social awareness and healing within multicultural communities and humanity as a whole. Safi’s works are striking, multi-layered, and dynamic. They mix multiple mediums and techniques that combine to elicit deep reactions in the viewer. Her works are intended to convey stories of resilience and vulnerability.
Safi’s work has been exhibited locally in locations such as the Seattle WOW gallery, 1405 4th Avenue, and Europa Gallery.
Safi’s website states “A consistent element in her work is a lowercase "i," symbolizing the self in one's personal journey, encapsulated in her empowering slogan, "i live." Safi uchi's art is deeply connected to her personal experiences.”
IPHIS AIRE
Iphis Aire works in clay to illustrate the interaction between the trans body and the world. Iphis’s ceramic vessels feature twisting, intertwined elements as well as ovals, spikes and tree-like branches. The works connotate a spectrum of organic, living shapes.
After running an independent studio in Denver and exhibiting the work of trans people, Iphis moved to Seattle and continued the journey of creating and teaching. Iphis’s work explores themes of transformation, evolution, and the core essence of the body.
Iphis’s wares include cups, mugs, plates, bowls, and a variety of other familiar items. They suggest natural elements like unfolding plants, seashells, fossils, and desert landscapes.
Iphis writes, “Nature, the inherent versatility of clay, and the human form are my primary sources of inspiration. These influences merge in my work, infusing it with a deep sense of organic beauty and personal expression.”
KATHLEEN WOODWARD
Kathleen Woodward’s paintings are vibrant depictions of the natural world. Through her art she works to share the joy and wonder of life found in forests, meadows, mountains and rivers; rocks and streams, sunsets and moonlight. She paints the verve of life outside the confines of the constructed and digital world. With broad brushstrokes, Kathleen layers her paintings to capture both the immenseness of nature and its subtle details. Her work offer both the bright vibrancy of trees in sunlight and the secret shadows between.
On her website, Kathleen writes, “I choose to focus on the positive, on the joy in life, and as an artist to portray its beauty. I am a happy person, a well-balanced optimist…I have had difficult times, fears and insecurities that are requisite in the human condition; they are part of my story, the fabric of who I am. I find peace by escaping the shadows and abandoning myself to God’s light and love. A proclamation of the verve and beauty of life; this is the spirit of my paintings.”
Kathleen’s work is currently exhibited in Ellensburg, Leavenworth, Cle Elum, Seattle, and Kirkland.
E.R. SABA
Erika Saba’s pieces span a large gamut of materials and presentations.
Her website states, “...she creates unique pieces that are both at home, and foreign, among contemporary work.”
In her previous work, contrasting fabric types and textures produce three-dimensional pieces that remind the viewer of topography, fur, feathers and discarded clothing. Her current work is focused on the Palestinian embroidery art of Taṭrīz. The result are large-scale, super-sized Tatreez rugs. While some are conventional, others evoke the pixel-art of old-school video games.
Erika’s work has been exhibited in cities including Chicago, New York, Bellevue, and Seattle. She also created a public mural for the City of Kingston, Washington.
On her Instagram, Erika writes “I studied at UW School of art and The Art Institute of Chicago. I make things with my hands and I love the strange and unusual.”
Erika’s work is currently exhibited as part of the ”Unprecedented: The Inaugural Postmark Biennial” at The Postmark Center For the Arts and White River Valley Museum in Auburn, Washington.
JESSIE CHOU - CHIEH FURNITURE
Chieh Furniture is a Seattle-based furniture studio showcasing the masterful work of Jessie Chou. Her pieces both elevate the natural patterns of the source wood and provide elegant functionality. The individual elements of each piece flow together in harmony in both her pieces that are mid-century modern adjacent as well as her more contemporary furniture. By carefully choosing and contrasting the wood in her creations, she creates allusions to places such as the mountains of the North Cascades and the tropical Savannah.
Originally a design student, Chou found that she returned to woodworking throughout her other careers.
Chou writes on her website, “I see each piece I create as a sculpture—an embodiment of soft lines and hard edges that brings out the best in wood. In my work, I strive to blend artistry and functionality, crafting pieces that resonate with both beauty and purpose.”
ADDY SECHLER
Addy Sechler is a multi-talented artist who works in ceramics, digital art, and photography. Their work is both whimsical and existential. Though the pieces remind the viewer of everyday items and experiences from many cultures, there is a sense of mortality to many of their works.
Addy’s ceramic sculptures invite the viewer to recognize antique toys, curios, and dishes from times and places that seem familiar but unnamable.
Addy’s digital art is reminiscent of works by Gauguin, Basquiat, and Ken Haring. The bright contrasting colors feel more like paintings than pixels. Many of the images capture emotional snapshots of moments in time and the things we tell ourselves.
On their website, Addy writes “I am someone who needs to be many things to be one thing at all. In being human, there are deaths that I habitually return to before reaching further into my imagination and coming together with the makings of my heart. Isn't there an abundance of life in the moments we know curiosity and peace, and a feeling of death when all signs of these things are absent? Art that comes from both of these places teems with the cyclical energy of renewal. It is rich and childlike as much as it is grave and old. “
LEARN MORE
Intrigued about the Umbrella Fringe Festival? Curious to start planning your itinerary? Check out the website for the latest artists, shows, and more: https://kirklandartscenter.org/kirkland-fringe-festival/