Tacoma Art Museum

Camille Patha

(b. 1938, Seattle, Washington)
The Conductor, 1975
Acrylic on masonite
Dimensions: 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 inches
Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of the Artist, 1976.4

After completing her master of fine arts degree from the University of Washington in 1965, Camille Patha soon rejected her core training in pure abstraction to favor pictorial imagery deeply indebted to surrealism. In the early 1970s, Patha embraced the expressive potential of surrealism to explore social issues, ecology, feminism, and sexuality.

Ambrose Patterson

(b. 1877, Daylesford, Australia; d. 1967, Seattle, Washington)
Point Lobos, circa 1917-18
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 47 x 63 inches with frame
Tacoma Art Museum, Museum purchase in honor of Wendell L. Ott, 1992.22

Australian native Ambrose Patterson arrived in the Northwest in 1918 after a decade of study in Paris and an impressive exhibition history at the Paris Salon d'Automne, the Royal Academy in London, and the Guggenheim in New York among others.

Patterson founded the School of Painting and Design at the University of Washington (now the School of Art) bringing a sophisticated understanding of avant-garde artistic ideas. In his own work he experimented with a variety of styles ranging from impressionism to postimpressionism and cubism."

Susan Seubert

(b. 1970, Indianapolis, Indiana)
Lewis and Clark State Park, 1998
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 23 x 29 1/4 inches framed
Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of the artist and Froelick Gallery, Portland, 2003.17

Susan Seubert's provocative photographs, focusing on violence and its psychological impact, have earned critical acclaim. Seubert graduated from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, in 1992. Her works have been included in the Portland Art Museum's biennial exhibitions in 1999 and 2001, and her recent work was included in The 9th Northwest Biennial at Tacoma Art Museum. In addition to fine arts photography, Seubert is a regular contributor to the New York Times and National Geographic Traveler. She was awarded an Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for her magazine work by Columbia University in New York in 1999.

This image is from the series 10 Most Popular Places to Dump a Body in the Columbia River Gorge.

Jeffrey Simmons

(b. 1968, Cincinnati, Ohio)
Eulalia, 1998
Oil and alkyd on linen
Dimensions: 52 1/2 x 46 1/2 inches
Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of Rebecca and Alexander Stewart, 1998.24

Jeffrey Simmons graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree from the School of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1991. In 1996, Simmons received both a Betty Bowen Committee Special Recognition Award and a Pilloff Scholarship from the Pilchuck Glass School. Simmons's art is marked by a technical mastery of diverse painting media and a commitment to rigorous exploration of new permutations of his visual vocabulary.

Marie Watt

(b. 1967, Seattle, Washington)
Tear Down This Wall, 2007
Reclaimed wool blankets, satin binding, and thread
Dimensions: 61 x 64 inches
Tacoma Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds from the Aloha Club, 2007.15

Marie Watt began her formal education at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, and then pursued an associate of fine arts in museum studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe. She earned a master of fine arts from Yale University in 1996. Her project Blanket Stories has been installed in six museums across the western United States and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Her work has been awarded the Seattle Art Museum's Betty Bowen Memorial Award in 2005, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship in 2006, and an artist residency at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia in 2008.