Frye Art Museum</a>’s Founding Collection hung floor to ceiling—a display mode referred to as a salon-style hang. The installation approximates the dramatic viewing experience enjoyed by visitors to Charles and Emma Frye’s Seattle home in the first decades of the twentieth century.&nbsp;</p><p>The Fryes developed their passion for art at the World’s Columbian Exposition, a world’s fair held in Chicago in 1893. The experience greatly influenced the painterly subjects and artists the young couple collected for years to come. Over the next four decades, they purchased canvases by an international roster of artists from Europe and the United States. As children of German immigrants, the Fryes focused particularly on works by German artists.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The couple displayed the collection in private living quarters and a purpose-built gallery attached to their home in First Hill. Major philanthropic supporters of music, the Fryes also hosted concerts and charitable events in their gallery. Concurrent exhibition LINEAJES pays homage to this model of cross-disciplinary engagement, inviting local percussionist Antonio M. Gómez to activate the space with musical interventions and a mural painted on the walls behind the Salon works.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Ellen Lesperance</a> (born 1971, lives and works in Portland, Oregon) meticulously translates knitting patterns into paintings, and Gretchen Frances <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Frye-Art-Museum/"/Artist/Gretchen-Bennett/358B2084184D4AAE">Bennett (born 1960, lives and works in Seattle) evokes the grain of lo-fi digital imagery through precise color pencil marks. <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Frye-Art-Museum/"/Artist/Margie-Livingston/8EE10E62F5F7DA30">Margie Livingston</a>’s (born 1953, lives and works in Seattle) “paint object” employs acrylic paint as sculptural material, while <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Frye-Art-Museum/"/Artist/Natalie-Ball/05D5CE264AD0B39F">Natalie Ball</a>’s (born 1980, lives and works in Chiloquin, Oregon) assemblages incorporate the scents of their organic materials. The museum acquired many of the included artworks through its Local Ties initiative, which furthers the Frye’s commitment to championing local artists.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Natalie Krick</a> deconstructs pictures of Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962). Using contact sheets from commercial photographer Bert Stern’s The Complete Last Sitting (a book of 2,600 photos taken for Vogue magazine six weeks before the actress’s death), Krick separates the images from the book’s eroticized language. She then obscures them by masking, layering, and applying cut-out patterns—interventions that complicate the voyeuristic viewing the book imposes on its iconic subject.</p><p>The artist’s approach to these photographs is, in her words, “not an attempt to understand ‘Monroe’s truth’ but to focus attention on what the photograph does not show us, on what it hides and distorts.” Krick physically cuts and pastes Stern’s images to craft new compositions that often position Monroe as the photographer. By giving agency to the actress, Krick undermines the dynamic of objectification and sexualization between Stern and Monroe. The artist’s reframing of history in this body of work reveals the power imbalances of photography and instigates a more critical perspective on the women it has long objectified.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

artist Dawn Cerny’s abstract</a> sculptures transform a museum gallery into a colorful domestic landscape. Her interactive furniture pieces crafted from humble materials celebrate the theatricality of everyday life, often to humorous effect. The exhibition opens a literal window into the neighboring Frye Salon, where Cerny’s contemporary works mingle among the traditional oil paintings. Archly embracing the tension between real and artificial, Cerny’s work underscores that the original Frye Salon—the in-home gallery of Charles and Emma Frye—was both a private living space and a carefully staged backdrop for public social events.<p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Alex Katz</a>: Theater and Dance explores six decades of the New York painter’s dynamic collaborations with choreographers and avant-garde theater groups, offering an exciting glimpse into the intersection of the visual and performing arts. The exhibition showcases how the artist’s distinctive style—marked by bold compositions, vibrant colors, and references to popular culture—helped shape the look of American postmodern dance. Featuring rare archival materials, major sets, paintings, and never-before-seen sketches, the show is the first to highlight this underexamined aspect of Katz’s storied career, centered on his longstanding partnership with choreographer Paul Taylor.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

artist Dawn Cerny</a>—subject of the concurrent solo exhibition Portmeirion—stages her functional sculptures in conversation with the Frye Salon to consider how we live with art. A window cut into the wall separating the two exhibitions offers unexpected sightlines that reshape our view of the museum space.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />