The Feels Breaks Down Barriers to Art with Eighth Showcase

Cristina Martinez works at AXIS Gallery / The Evergreen Echo

Celebrating Black and brown artists and stories, The Feels had their The Feels 8 Showcase: Still in our Feels show at AXIS gallery on Thursday, March 14, with an epic evening of food and beverages, event booths, panels, and more importantly art. The show previewed sixteen new and returning artists. This event started in 2017 and has grown to showcase more artists across visual and performance media. DJs and live performers entertained throughout the night. AXIS is a popular stop during the Pioneer Square art walk, so viewing the art alone might not have filled the entire four-hour event; the artist interviews and panels helped space out art digestion through the evening.

One of the artists on a panel—Cristina Martinez, a Seattle-based artist—showed works consisting of portraits of a woman wearing different fabrics between paintings. She evidenced how her sisterhood, feminine energy, and strong female lineage have influenced her work. With a plant-stemmed neck, Take Your Things and Go is a provocative painting of a short-haired woman clutching art supplies and an expression caught in mid-sigh. The blend of golds in the background draws delicate contrast to the light blue fabric engulfing the woman, as sewing had been an inspiration for Martinez’s start to her art career. The original paintings were modestly displayed. While there was no indication on whether her original art works were on sale, Martinez pulled in a crowd selling high quality prints of her work at the artist booths.

Across the back wall of the main gallery was an array of monochromatic portrait paintings. Symonne Larison, a self-taught PNW artist, saturated her canvas and captured bold expressions of various Black figures. They each showcased a different hairstyle, skillfully painted and attentive to textures and how light in the frame interacts with the subjects’ hair. One painting in particular, Girl, I Got You!, has a woman staring politely at the viewer. The installed overhead fixture lighting from above the painting subtly emphasized the figure’s radiant glow on her skin as someone combs her afro with a hair pick. She’s natural, relaxed, and slouched over, expressing comfort, inviting the viewer into the painting and her space.

Another artist to dive into monochromatic design was Jacque Churchville with her uncanny replication of perfectly painted cartoon characters. From across different universes and shows, Churchville happily organizes color coordinated cartoons around celebrities. One of Churchville’s works features Chef Matty Matheson on a toilet reading his own book surrounded by yellow characters—such as Spongebob Squarepants, Winnie the Pooh, and the Power Star from the Nintendo universe— politely floating toward the top of the canvas. Churchville’s line work is superb. The details of her bathroom tile lattice are carefully and evenly spread across the canvas. The characters have masterfully swooped outlines from a long-tipped brush. The lining is too precise and attentive to go unnoticed.

The event held attention by keeping hunger and thirst at bay. The drink special for the night was a take on a cucumber margarita with a cocktail appropriately called All The Feels. It was a fresh delight to enjoy while listening to the stories of Black and brown artists and their lived experiences shaping their art. Pairing the margarita was a taco booth serving Filipino and Hawaiian protein options including chicken adobo and kalua pork. 

The Feels helps support Black and brown artists share their stories through art. Supporting youth and young adults in the arts is one of the key ways they intend to break down boundaries in art spaces for those with typically limited access. Art created by youth and young adults from some of The Feels’ programming was one of the first displays to be seen walking through the event rooms. With this event being their eighth showcase, it is exciting to see what future showcases have to offer.