♪♪
-I'm Kirsten Anderson, and I'm the owner
and curator of Roq La Rue Gallery.
♪♪
My parents were artists, so I grew up
in a very artistic household.
I was exposed to all kinds of art from a very young age,
and I loved it.
And it was just sort of generally understood,
I would be an artist. I just assumed I would be.
I tried to be a painter.
I wasn't very good,
but I had a big passion for it.
And I was working at Seattle Art Supply
and a coworker had asked me, “If you could
do anything in the world, what would you do?”
And out of my mouth just popped “Open a gallery.”
And around that time, a magazine called
Juxtapose came out, and it was a magazine
that was devoted
to this new type of artwork
that was springing up out of Southern California
that was very influenced by Tiki Hot Rod,
like very much kitsch culture,
but also a very sort of a working class art form
that was irreverent and transgressive,
but also very technically accomplished.
And so growing up as a little
sort of punk rock, New Wave kid,
all that stuff really appealed to me.
And I wanted to see that in Seattle.
So that's how it all got started.
I figured I'd do it for a summer and see how it went.
I had no money,
but I just painted some walls, white, threw up some lights,
called my friends and had an art show.
(Canadian national anthem)
So I'm from Canada
originally and my great uncle
Rock was a hockey player
in Montreal
and he was known
for his murderous bouts of rage on the ice,
and he was always getting kicked out.
But I always thought of him with a lot of fondness
because he would keep like a little bag of teeth
that he had knocked out in a little bag.
And if I could guess the amount of teeth, I'd get a quarter.
So when it came time to name the gallery,
I was just like, you know, I'm going
to name after Uncle Rock.
But that's not entirely
truthful.
(dramatic drums)
♪♪
The gallery shows work
that is, it's always very figurative based,
very narrative, definitely takes its cues
from the symbolist movements of the 19th century,
filtered through a pop culture lens.
Everything has sort of a darkly fantastical bent,
sort of magical realism.
Pop surrealism is
symbolic, it's iconoclastic, can be
transgressive, can be just straight up beautiful.
It's very earnest.
There's no satire, jaded ness in this artwork,
which I think surprises people.
I know galleries can be very intimidating for people
who are new to the art world, and so that's why
I try to have fun openings.
So people have a glass of something in their hand.
There's music, they can look at the artwork.
They're not feeling like they're going
to get the hard sell or anything like that.
So it's sort of a festive environment.
They can stay as long as they want.
♪♪
Having relationships with artists is everything,
and it is the joy that keeps me in this job.
I get despondent about the state of the world
and everybody's terrible.
But then I think about all the artists
I work with in every single one of them is a cool
human being,
a good person, incredibly skilled and talented,
everybody is just so incredible that I work with.
I'm the luckiest person in the world
getting to do this.
Come on down and see what's going on in here.
We’ve been around for 25 years for a reason and you are
welcome to come check it out and
I am actually Canadian.
♪♪
Gallery hours and location are at roqlarue.com
♪♪
Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8
and anytime online at seattlechannel.org/artzone
♪♪