Find UW alumni at art exhibits across Seattle (and beyond) this fall

Looking for galleries to visit this fall? Check out these visual arts shows by UW alumni.

By Caitlin Klask and Shin Yu Pai | August 7, 2025

This fall, you can find art by UW alumni and faculty in solo exhibitions, group shows and art fairs across Seattle and beyond. We’ve rounded up a few for your consideration.

Carly Sheehan – “Call Me Superstitious”
Specialist Gallery, July 3 – Aug. 17

Carly Sheehan is a full-time lecturer in the Painting, Drawing and Printmaking Department of the School of Art + Art History + Design at the UW. She’s part of the artist team at Specialist Gallery, a contemporary space in Pioneer Square, where she helps curate exhibits.
“The works in ‘Call Me Superstitious’ are embedded with flowers given by friends and past lovers, gloves left behind in the studio, zip ties cut from what they held, bingo cards from a summer spent hoping to win,” Sheehan writes in her artist statement. “The residue of lived experience is woven into the structure. These works are about cracks, both physical and emotional: in the systems, in the grids, in the hearts, in the sidewalks—the ones we were told to step over.”

“Call Me Superstitious” features artwork pushing off the wall with steel arms and padding to represent protection (and the titular superstition). The exhibit, which opened in July, has a second reception on Aug. 7 at 5:00 p.m.

Caryn Friedlander – “When Water Becomes Light”
ArtX Contemporary, Aug. 7 through Sept. 20

Caryn Friedlander, ’87, ’91, studied painting and East Asian art history at the UW. While writing her master’s thesis, she studied art in Japan through a Monbukagakushō Fellowship. Friedlander’s interest in Japanese art—including a visit to an indigo dye museum outside Kyoto—is evident in the shibori dye used in her new solo exhibition, “When Water Becomes Light.” Multiple sheer layers of silk, hand-dyed with natural indigo, echo the waves of the ocean as they sway in the breeze.

“Water has been a significant theme in my work,” Friedlander writes in her artist statement. “Using shibori resist dyeing and natural indigo, I layered transparent silk to create a sense of depth and reflected light on water as a symbol for the many interwoven layers of life we experience, and the ever-changing nature of all things.”

You can see “When Water Becomes Light” at ArtX Contemporary with Friedlander in attendance on Aug. 7 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

“Nightingale” by Mary Ann Peters

Mary Ann Peters – “myself inside your story”
Whatcom Museum, Aug. 16 through Jan. 25, 2026

“This show highlights the body of work I have made in response to histories aligned with the Middle East, both archived and contemporary,” Peters wrote in an email. “I started making this work for a simple reason … to understand my heritage as the backdrop of who I am and how that might have been different had my family not immigrated to this country.

“I felt I could offset the maligning of Arab cultures that were woven through American discourse.

“My first look was at the journey of my maternal grandfather from the mountains of Lebanon in the late 19th century and his route through Europe into the Americas to Tyler, Texas.

“The reach for understanding both expulsions and chosen immigration narratives continues for me. This show is a visible record of my inquiries. It is a translation of history beyond the nostalgia of familial lore.”

Peters’ show opens Aug. 16 at Whatcom Museum in Bellingham.

See also: Seeing what’s at the periphery—the art of Mary Ann Peters

“Study for Conservatory” by Whiting Tennis

Whiting Tennis – “Refuge”
Greg Kucera Gallery, Sept. 4 through Nov. 1

At the UW, Whiting Tennis, ’84, studied independently with Jacob Lawrence – the internationally acclaimed artist whose work chronicled the Black experience. “I was fooling around with these little Clyfford Still-influenced abstracts,” Tennis told UW Magazine’s Shin Yu Pai in a 2024 interview. “So I’d come in and put them on the floor and the master of narrative painting would say, ‘OK, Tennis. See you next week.’

“If I was paying attention, I may have learned that art is made by people who live lives, and that I had very far to go in that regard,” he continued. “But the feeling in the room [with Lawrence] was one of respect on my part and more than a little patience on his.”

His latest solo exhibit, “Refuge,” opens at Greg Kucera Gallery on Sept. 4. Tennis will give an artist talk at the gallery on Sept. 6 at 12:00 p.m.

See also: Whiting Tennis, visual and musical artist, describes his creative process

Dancers Hannah Simmons and Alethea Alexander photographed by Allina Yang

Various artists—Walk Don’t Run
Sept. 20, 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Branding itself as an “art walk marathon,” Walk Don’t Run is a three-kilometer art walk from Pioneer Square to Belltown, kicking off Art + Culture Week in Seattle (Sept. 20–27). The community art event, which was inspired by the NEPO 5k Don’t Run from 2011–2015, is organized by local event planner Kira Burge with the visionary talent of a group of local artists, including Bumbershoot planner and Neumo’s owner Steven Severin, ’00, and choreographer Alice Gosti, ’08.

Artists to be featured in the first annual Walk Don’t Run include:

  • Chris Burnside, ’96 (BFA in painting), whose large-scale sculpture, “Up to Aether,” uses common construction materials.
  • Iveliz Martel, ’23 (MFA in acting), who performs with local theater group eSe Teatro, which empowers Latinx artists creating, producing and performing theater in English and/or Spanish.
  • Alethea Alexander, ’11, ’18 (BFA and MFA in dance), who will perform with long-time collaborator Hannah Simmons on a movement-based installation.
  • Andy Zacek, ’20 (BS in civil engineering), who performs “Heap” with fellow artists in “a whimsical, collaborative performance that uses ladders, bicycles and absurd props to celebrate abundance while critiquing overconsumption.”
  • Janet Galore, ’88 (BS in math), founder of The Grocery Studios, who created a vending machine that distributes motivational messages from the arts scene in Seattle. “There are messages from all kinds of creative people who may have just the words you need to hear,” says Galore.
  • Laura Hart Newlon, ’10 (MA in anthropology), and Erin Elyse Burns, ’09 (MFA), whose video installation, “Don’t Delete,” chronicles their long-distance friendship maintained through conversations on life and art in a video chat app.
  • Lorraine Lau, ’14 (BA in gender, women and sexuality studies), whose public performance work dazzled onlookers in 2019 at the Seattle waterfront.
  • Margie Livingston, ’99 (MFA in painting), who combines performance and visual art by dragging her canvas through dirt to “collaborate” with the landscape.
  • Daniel Pak, ’02 (BS in materials science and engineering), who will perform with his band Pak & The Lolos, comprising musicians from Totem Star.
  • Saya Moriyasu, ’91 (BFA, BA in art, ceramic art and business administration), whose clay sculptures are inspired both by Americana and her Japanese heritage.
  • Tom Eykemans, ’02 (BFA in visual communications design), co-organizer of the Seattle Art Book Fair, instructor at the UW School of Art + Art History + Design and creator of dazzling book covers (including “No-No Boy”). His “Alley Cats” exhibit reconceptualizes lost cat posters and pays homage to our furry neighborhood friends.

Did we miss anything? Share upcoming shows by your favorite UW alumni in the comments.