Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Jaydra Johnson, Brittney Frantece, Blessing Greer Mathurin, and Quintessa Matranga pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
ENTROPY: For Those Who Dream Awake Between Dawns
Behnke Family Gallery, Seattle, WA
June 3 – September 13, 2025
Each year the Neddy Artists Award brings together an exhibition of eight artists working across various mediums. These artists are finalists and grand prize winners of unrestricted funding to support their artistic practices. This year’s exhibition was curated by Berette S. Macaulay. ENTROPY: For Those Who Dream Awake Between Dawns explores the way artists use their practice to stay present in our socially, politically, and environmentally fraught world. The exhibition demonstrates how an artist’s daydreams might disrupt global violence.
ENTROPY showcases works by abstract and surreal painters such as Craig Cundiff (grand prize winner), Lauren Boilini, Andy DeLapp, Deirdre Patterson; mixed-medium collage artist and printmaker Romson Regarde Bustillo; portrait photographer Jordan Monloire; and mixed-media designer and sculptor Bri Chesler and ceramicist Hanako O’Leary (grand prize winner).
Through the wide range of representation—from the interiorities of private community spaces to the colonial and racist stereotypes placed on groups of people—the exhibition weaves through the complex ways we move through and (re)build our worlds.
The exhibition will be up through September, so there’s plenty of time to make it out. Consider bringing a friend to engage in the eye-opening discourse that political and personal artworks ignite.
Reflection: How does daydreaming influence your world?
a pain that is not private
Specialist Gallery, Seattle, WA
May 1 – June 21, 2025
A show that I would definitely not miss this month is a pain that is not private in the Specialist Gallery, which showcases multimedia works, paintings, videography, and textiles from Monyee Chau, Andy DeLapp, Bailee, Inji Kim & Rosaline Dou, Sadaf Sadrii, and Maria Zamora.
Hardship is ever-present—from our personal lives to global genocides, land theft, and wars. But the expression of hardship can sometimes be opaque, hard to decipher. This show allows us to feel the pain communally, even if it isn’t so clear. Challenging the idea, perhaps even the habit, that we must grieve, mourn, or feel pain in private, the show demonstrates that sharing painful feelings aloud is an opportunity to relate to others, to be expressive even if it’s messy, to negotiate participation in each other’s painful stories, and to develop alternative ways of making sense of pain.
Reflection: What are some foggy ways of expressing pain that offer new ways to sit with hard feelings?