Happy Room — Mosaic Collage and digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia

What to Expect

Naoko Morisawa’s Happy Room — Mosaic Collage includes 2D and 3D work featuring household objects, foods, shoes, animals and people, and colorful geometric abstraction.

Hexe Fey’s digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes graphic prints, flat and 360 video, and 2D and 3D objects. Themes include spirituality, performance, protest, settler-colonial violence and resulting trauma, creativity and experimentation, gender/sexuality, ancestral wisdom, and more. Some video and digital work contains spinning and flashing imagery.

Happy Room — Mosaic Collage

February 2, 2023 - April 6, 2023

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera - Noh Mask, and newer abstract works. 

“With these works, I tried to bring to life the material properties of wood and paper as much as possible. I think that mixing two (or more) materials on one panel will make each other more complicated and increase their presence and statement,” states Naoko Morisawa. 

About Naoko Morisawa

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Naoko Morisawa studied design and ceramics at Tama Art University, one of the major art schools in Japan. Her work spans art exhibitions, commercial design projects, and teaching art classes in Tokyo, Yokohama, and the Canadian Embassy. 
In 2004, Naoko moved to the Pacific Northwest where she explored exhibition opportunities starting from small exhibition spaces which then grew into national and international exhibitions. Morisawa has exhibited her work throughout the US and internationally in Canada, Japan, and Ireland.

Her work has also been collected by and displayed at various entities including the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, City of Portland, City of Seattle, City of Bellevue, Kent, Shoreline, Seattle Convention Center Summit Building, ArtsWA,  Amazon, General Electric, Nordstrom, and Facebook. Morisawa has been awarded artist grants from the Puffin Foundation, The Santo Foundation, Artist Trust, and more. Naoko Morisawa's abstract artwork is represented by Traver Gallery, Seattle.

Image: Foreground: Happy Chair, Naoko Morisawa/Morisawa Studio, 20 x 13 x11 in., handcrafted, oil stained wood, 2022. Background: Invisible world - on the way to the Shangri-La, Naoko Morisawa/Morisawa Studio, 30 x 40 in., handcrafted, oil-stained wood/ paper mosaic, acrylic and Japanese paper, 2022.

Gallery

digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia

February 2, 2023 - April 6, 2023

 A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey. 

About the Artists

Hexe Fey (he/they) is a transmasculine Oglala Lakota and European interdisciplinary mover, art worker, curator, glitch user, interactive fiction writer, and community harm reductionist. Hexe is the creator of the video game Cursed Task, which focuses on the struggle of writing artist bios.

Raven Kameʻenui-Becker is a mixed-race Indigiqueer (Kanaka Maoli) and interdisciplinary artist. Their artistic practice is grounded in contemporary Hawaiian art, disability justice, and Indigenous community care. Following their māhū and Indigiqueer ancestors, Raven’s art is aloha ʻāina and a way of building kinship-oriented, decolonial futures. Raven is pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Decolonial Arts Praxis.

Taylor is a CHamoru, Cherokee, and Japanese musician. He has been a bassoonist for over 15 years.

Raven and Taylor were born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and hold bachelor’s degrees in psychology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. They are married and live on unceded Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa, Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱, and Tséstho’e land. You can find more of their art on Instagram at @strayviolet.

Raven TwoFeathers (Cherokee, Seneca, Cayuga, Comanche) is a Two Spirit, Emmy award-winning creator based in Seattle, WA. Originally from New Mexico, they spent their childhood moving and exploring Indigenous cultures across the continent and the Pacific. They returned to New Mexico to attend Santa Fe University of Art & Design, graduating magna cum laude with a BFA in Film Production. After graduation, their path led them to work on and create more Indigenous art than ever and things began to feel right. They recently released a comic-based zine, Qualifications of Being, about their journey of realizing they are trans and Two Spirit. They continue to grow and explore their practice through the people they meet, and the stories that guide them.

Ty Defoe (Giizhig) is an Indigiqueer citizen of Oneida and Anishinaabe Nations. He is an interdisciplinary artist and Grammy Award winner who has authored multiple works including Ajijaak on Turtle Island, The Lesson (w/ Avi Amon and Nolan Doran), and Firebird Tattoo.  He has received recognition for his works including the 2021-2022 Sundance Fellow, Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, Jonathan Larson Award, Cultural Capital Fellow with First People’s Fund, Robert Rauschenberg artist in residence, and The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays for the Stage, among others.

Communidad Catrileo+Carrion are queer/trans/nonbinary Indigenous epupillan (two-spirit) beings who work articulating generative spaces of reciprocity and relationality. They honor the land and their ancestors through ceremonies materialized in their audiovisual, textile, editorial, curatorial, and community practices. Communidad Catrileo+Carrion reside divided between Pikunmapu/Qullasuyu (Valparaíso Region, Chile) and Kumeyaay Territory (San Diego, California, USA). The group is currently composed of Antonio Catrileo Araya, Constanza Catrileo Araya, Malku Catrileo Araya, Alejandra Carrión Lira, and Manuel Carrión Lira.

Elijah Forbes is an Indigenous Two-Spirit creative that focuses on bringing Odawa storytelling and transgender joy into the world through his work. He has previously worked with Twitter to create illustrated media for the Trans Awareness Week hashtag, as well as with many other clients to bring their ideas to life. Some of these companies include BookRiot, Andrews McMeel Publishing, The Boys and Girls Club of Canada, and Iron Circus Comics. 

Image: 227 Indigenous Children, Elijah Forbes, digital illustration print, 2022

Gallery