Jeffrey Moose Gallery represents an eclectic group of talents who work in many styles and a huge variety of media. Artists from Washington State and around the US are represented as well as international artists from countries including Australia, Belgium and China. The gallery is not aligned with any art movement or particular region. While some art in Jeffrey Moose Gallery is representational, an equal amount is abstract or heavily abstracted.
The origins of the gallery are unusual. The inspiration for the gallery is rooted in an experience Mr. Moose had as a founding member of a cooperative gallery on Bainbridge Island in Washington State called Net Contents Gallery (1989-1995).
The cooperative operated in two locations over six years, collecting a dedicated following among contemporary art lovers and artists in the community. Several artists associated with the cooperative have exhibited at Jeffrey Moose Gallery over its five year history including sculptor and multi media artist Bob Lucas, painter Peggy Brunton, ceramicist Rick Stafford, Suzy Kueckelhan, collage artist, video artist Gary Nicholson and sculptor Brian Berman.
The gallery was a very spiritual, personal and often non-commercial institution featuring group shows often concentrated on a central theme, occasionally controversial, always thoughtful. The diversity of media was enough to draw attention, but the quality of the art and of the displays remained high, remarkably, as artists continually challenged, collaborated with and educated each other as they worked towards a common goal. This spirit was not unnoticed: the gallery received extensive press coverage for shows both wild and tame.
It is this experimental, nurturing spirit which helps to guide Jeffrey Moose Gallery. Some art is humorous and offbeat; clever, self analytical fused glass paintings by Bob Lucas, lushly textured, nostalgic multi media collage paintings by Jan Erion, the brightly colored, lively and sensual efforts of Suzanne Haddon and the quirky, introspective, often zany paintings of Cheri O'Brien add a sense of levity and self acceptance to our modern world.
Another focus, so-called Contemporary Indigenous, is more specialized, though no less healing. Native artists throughout the world are now in the process of creating exciting work which blends traditional spiritual content with contemporary media. As we watch the modern art world plod along in its various theoretical and conceptual excursions, it is refreshing to find new works with vital spiritual content. Among the artists in this category are people like Lillian Pitt, a Warm Springs/Yakima/Wasco-Wishram Native American who produces a huge variety of work that ranges from bronze and Raku and Anagama-fired ceramic masks based on Columbia River petroglyphs to multi media installations, etchings and a variety of jewelry and small sculptures. Also featured is work by Alaskan Inupiat artist Larry Ahavakana, a Cooper-Union and Rhode Island School of Design sculptor who works in stone and wood. To review the careers of these two Native artists is breathtaking; they have traveled the world spreading their magic to audiences overseas who often appreciate their talents more than their American counterparts. A recent immigrant from China, artist Long Gao shows his diverse, multi dimensional talents through his Image Seal Cutting prints, his abstracted Literati style paintings, wood carvings and folk style paintings.
Many have followed the gallery's interest in Australian Aboriginal art. Over the past five years, the gallery has featured shows highlighting this genre. Though the focus has been primarily on artists form the Central Desert who produce the famous "Dot Paintings", such as Lindsay Bird Mpetyane, Emily Kngwarreye, Eunice Napangardi, Ronnie Tjampatjinpa, Gloria Petyarreye and others, works from the Arnhem Land regions, the Kimberly and the Tiwi Islands have also been exhibited. The gallery offers a wide inventory of original works on canvas as well as small-edition fine art prints of the highest caliber. The special place that this work has in the art world as it represents both the oldest visual tradition and some of the most vital cutting edge imagery, is acknowledged at Jeffrey Moose Gallery. The lessons from these works of symbiotic, co-existence with the natural world are sometimes overshadowed by their sheer vibrancy and complexity of design.
In many ways, traditional Western style landscape painting conveys the same magic as the work produced by the Contemporary Indigenous artists: the difference is merely one of visual language.
Jeffrey Moose Gallery supports the work of several such artists. Peggy Brunton is a local favorite whose unique brand of impressionism spins outdoor garden views, landscapes in Europe, maritime scenes and interior floral still lives alike with the kind of magic for which Renoir and Monet are known. Mr. Moose has represented Ms. Brunton for nearly a decade. Catherine Gill, a longtime member of the Women Painters of Washington and the Northwest Watercolor Society, creates complex, intuitive watercolors, oils and mixed media works featuring not only Washington State but Alaska, where she conducts annual summer watercolor classes, and international locations including Australia and Ireland. Darlene Morgensen, a resident of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, is a Northwest Pastel Society President and one of the finest pastel landscape artists around. Her sensitive use of color and exquisite technique mixed with an uncanny sense of place and dramatic skies make her a one of a kind gem. On the exotic side, Belgian Philippe Permain is talented as an oil painter, watercolorist and draftsman in pen and ink and charcoal. His expressive marine paintings and idyllic eighteenth century style landscapes and village scenes are painted with a flair suggesting his European roots.
The gallery has a relaxed environment. The floor plan is augmented by the unique interior design; a riser in the center of the gallery is surrounded by low exhibition walls punctuated by windows and breaks allowing fascinating glimpses across the space into the various sub-galleries. The experience is intimate and contemporary. From the exterior, the whole can be readily viewed since the entire front of the gallery is glass. In the sky light-lit ambiance of Rainier Square one can sip coffee and stroll among the various retailers with easy access to the Fifth Avenue Theatre, the Olympic Four Seasons Hotel and numerous restaurants.
