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Old Faces/New Spaces
To celebrate the re-opening of
the Virginia Inn.,
a group exhibition of thirty
artists, entitled
"Old Faces/New Spaces," is
being put together by Rolon Garner.
It is appropriate that Garner curate this exhibition
because he curated the first art show at the Virginia Inn in 1981. Indeed it
was at Garner's insistence that the V.I. show art in the first place. A deal
was struck; the V.I. would show art if Rolon would curate the first show and
refer artists through the first year. That is how the V.I. became known as
Seattle's first artbar, although in truth, Rolon had already been showing art
at The Two Bells Tavern on an informal basis before he launched a regular art
program there as curator and partner.
Garner, an artist
in his own right, is known by many in the art community as co-founder, with
Anne Focke, of the happening '70's and/or arts space, founder of Artech, and
moving force behind many off-the-circuit exhibitions such as "The Hillclimb
Show" in 1987, as well as the Garner/Demombynes Gallery which grew out of it.
Over the years Rolon Garner has devoted a large part of his
career in promoting up and coming artists in the Seattle area, and he has drawn
on those old friends who showed at the very first exhibition or in the early
years of both the V.I. and the Two Bells. It will be an exhibition to be
anticipated, and will serve as a fitting tribute to those artists and to the
curator who lent a helping hand to so many artists, Rolon Garner.
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