Queer in Utah in Portland: Fazilat Soukhakian Interviewed

Adie B. Steckel talks with Fazilat Soukhakian about the artist’s Queer in Utah series and how her experience as a photo-journalist informs her art practice.

The best west coast art

Sent straight to your inbox.

Get weekly West Coast art news, reviews, and on views from our regional CLIFF NOTES columnists.

Advertisement

Art and culture events in California, Oregon, and Washington

Post your event or exhibition here!

Filters

Events

Advertisement

We publish fearless, rigorous, accessible writing about West Coast art and culture.

Q&A: Jayme Yen and Tom Eykemans of Seattle Art Book Fair
We talked with Seattle Art Book Fair co-organizers about the upcoming event on May 11–12.
Queer in Utah in Portland: Fazilat Soukhakian Interviewed
Fazilat Soukhakian on her series Queer in Utah, the horrors of liberalism, and making images of communities outside her own.
Q&A with Anemone & Alex Barsky
We talked to the Seattle-based collaborative and artist initiative Anemone and Seattle-based animator and educator Alex Barsky about their upcoming programming in the Seattle Art Book Fair.
Q&A with Henrik Söderström
We talked to the Swedish artist and musician based in LA about his recent exhibition Spirit Interface at Killscreen in Los Angeles.
Love Letter to Anida Yoeu Ali
Anida Yoeu Ali brings the strange and wonderful to familiar spaces through performance art.
Instantaneous and durational: Chao-Chen Yang at Cascadia Art Museum
The first survey of the career of twentieth-century Seattle artist Chao-Chen Yang is a signal contribution to the rich and underexplored history of Seattle’s regional modernist art scene.
Love Letter to Kacy Jung
Kacy Jung spins professional nihilism into artistic inspiration. Biomedical Ph.D. student turned full-time artist, Jung proves that you should quit your day job.
Q&A with Nina Amstutz and Cleo Davis
We talked to the curators of "Policing Justice" about the upcoming exhibition at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.
Capturing a slow sublime: Sun You at Ditch Projects
Sun You's performance-informed clay sculptures invite chaos and chance into her practice, creating space for her imagination to run wild.
Introducing the ‘Just looking’ video series presented with IKEA Residency
Peek into the art practices of Los Angeles creatives taking over the Burbank IKEA.
Toby Jurovics on Ron Jude
We talked to Barry Lopez Foundation director Toby Jurovics about the origins of the foundation and Ron Jude's photography.
Jeff Kelley on Hung Liu
We talked to writer and critic Jeff Kelley about his late wife and prolific artist Hung Liu.
Expanding small universes: Made in L.A. 2023 at the Hammer Museum
Lack of curatorial edits creates a lush exhibit that may be lost on those without the capacity to absorb it all.
Looking Outward: Bay Area Now 9 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
The ninth iteration of Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts asks of-the-moment questions about knowledge production and creation.
A Question of Hu: The Narrative Art of Hung Liu
Through her process, subject, and material choices, Liu uplifts subjects that historically would not have the socioeconomic power or privilege to be memorialized in paint.
Q&A with Amy Adler
We talked to the Los Angeles-based artist about her solo exhibition Audition on view at Night Gallery in LA.
Textile as transcript: Adriene Cruz in Converge 45’s Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship
Vibrant, mixed media textile works honor the history of Black women.
Good Taste: interview with Courtney Dailey from Nike
We talk to Courtney Dailey from Nike about art, design, and creative inspiration in everyday life.

We may not offer romantic weekend getaways, but we do have some pretty cool subscriber perks.

Plus, you get to help support and elevate West Coast art. Pretty great, eh?

Check out the Cliff Notes archive for over two years of weekly emails about the best West Coast art.

If you wear an artwork, does that make you a work of art? We think so.

Art writing should empower readers to feel inspired by the world around them.

A Condemned Building Gets a Last Breath of Life Through Sacramento Artists: Faith J. McKinnie, Liv Moe, Molly Stroud, and Genesis “The Mayor” Torres Interviewed
Four curators and thirty-five artists transform a soon-to-be demolished building in Sacramento's rapidly gentrifying Ice Blocks district.
A Question of Hu: The Narrative Art of Hung Liu
Through her process, subject, and material choices, Liu uplifts subjects that historically would not have the socioeconomic power or privilege to be memorialized in paint.
Aaron Shurin’s Poetic Punctuation
A writer discusses how an unlikely combination of punctuation changed his writing forever.
All the Strings that Bind: Patty Chang at Friends Indeed and Cushion Works
Chang’s work displays a longstanding preoccupation with the boundaries and trace appearances of the body.
An Archive for End Times: Invisible Labor in Taryn Tomasello’s “As Long As It Doesn’t Spread”
Monuments to pandemic isolation reconsider the archival impulse
An Endless Pursuit to Describe the World in Watercolor
Artist Alexa Grambush uses painting to understand the world and its complexities.
An Expansive Examination of Life and Death: Ameh Egwuh at Rele Gallery
An artist contemplates life, death, and the afterlife through unexpectedly cheerful symbols.
An Invitation Into Intimacy 
Stelo + Variable West Art Writing Resident Lusi Lukova considers the radical potential for care in text-based art.
Antifascist Climate Noir: Ryan Pierce at Elizabeth Leach Gallery
Chaotic scenes paint a cheeky and surreal image of capitalist futures.
Art of Glass: Emily Endo Interviewed
Through scientific discovery and mysticism, Emily Endo explores the possibility of glass.
Artists Fill San Francisco’s Cliff House with Warnings of Environmental Disaster: “Lands End” Reviewed
Ana Teresa Fernández, On the Horizon, 2021. Acrylic resin cylinders filled with seawater. 72 inches. high each. Part of the exhibition Lands End, organized by FOR-SITE. Image courtesy FOR-SITE. Photo: …
Asian Futures, With Asians: Astria Suparak and Everything Everywhere All at Once
May Maylisa Cat considers how Asian people and cultures have been continuously erased from film and TV.
Balancing Buoyancy and Desolation: Emily Kepulis at Lolo Pass
A painter meditates on the impending and preventable horror of environmental destruction.
Black in Bed
Stelo + Variable West Art Writing Resident Ella Ray considers the urgent need for Black rest.
Black Life Exploited for White Lies: Ilana Harris-Babou’s Long Con at Jacob Lawrence Gallery
Satire and collage expose capitalist strategies of using Black bodies to exploit spiritual, mental, and physical health.
Capturing a slow sublime: Sun You at Ditch Projects
Sun You's performance-informed clay sculptures invite chaos and chance into her practice, creating space for her imagination to run wild.
Celebrating the Complexity of Chicanx Identity Through Community Arts: Jake Prendez Interviewed
A Seattle-based artist celebrates his rich ancestry in vibrantly contemporary painting.
Chasing Ephemerality, Cheating Precarity: On Publishing During a Pandemic: Sarah Chieko Bonnickson and Gordon Fung Interviewed
Artists, writers, and designers discuss highlighting student voices in the pandemic and producing a digital publication.

We can’t do it without you.

Variable West is supported by our readers. Your generosity elevates, connects, and funds arts communities all along the West Coast. Together, we can grow integral arts discourse that thrives on trust and resource sharing. 

Consistent monthly income is vital to paying writers and artists sustainable wages.

An email you actually want to open

Each week, we send West Coast art news, reviews, and on views straight to your inbox.

We don’t spam!