Larry Calkins/Soo Hong – Calligraphic Mark-Making and Collage (Online); Thursdays, September 19 & 26, 2024

Larry Calkins was born in 1955 in Corvallis, OR, and grew up in a small logging community named Harlan. He stepped into the family tradition of working within logging operations, but after serious injuries in logging accidents, he decided to pursue a career in the arts. He has lived in London, England, and has traveled widely throughout the US and Europe. Larry is a very prolific artist and has created a vast body of work, that has been shown in many galleries since 1994. Calkins has been Artist in Residence at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA and has taught workshops and classes for many years in the Seattle area.

Soo Hong is a visual artist whose work explores issues surrounding cultural identity. Having lived and exhibited in places around the world, including, London, Shanghai, her native South Korea, and now the U.S., her experience of varying cultural norms and expectations has precipitated her observational practice. Her paintings represent an unbound freedom of expression released of any formal adherence to a determined identity. Her work has been shown in galleries around the world, and she has been awarded grants from D&AD (London), GAP (Seattle), Bellevue Arts Program (Bellevue) and was a finalist for the Neddy Awards (Seattle). She had her solo shows in Seattle at Linda Hodges Gallery and AMcE Creative Arts gallery. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the city of Bellevue, and the city of Portland. She created public art installations for Redmond Lights, Odessa Children’s Hospital (Seattle), and The Vera Project (Seattle).