JULIA HAACK IS EVERYWHERE >>>

Julia Haack. That's a name to file away in an easy-to-access part of your brain. The next time the name shows up in an art exhibit in the area, go see it.

As well as I can remember I first saw Julia Haack's work in the Environmental Art Show at Tacoma Community College in 2009. I briefly mentioned her in my review of the show. I was impressed with her sculpture but not impressed enough to write a lot. Or maybe at the time I was not so sure. But since then her work has grown on me.

In the Volcano's 2010 Best of Tacoma issue I mentioned Haack under the rubric "Best Seattle artists who sometimes go slumming in Tacoma." I also mentioned Troy Gua and Chauney Peck in that article - two other excellent artists to file away in the same part of your brain. Peck's art and Haack's actually share a lot of common elements. Gua is the guy who did all those portraits of famous people where each image is simultaneously two different people. You probably saw his work at Fulcrum.

Yet again I mentioned Haack in my "Ten to watch" column. (She's becoming as ubiquitous in my reviews as Ron Hinson and David N. Goldberg.) In the "10 to watch" column I said, "Haack's wood sculptures are mostly flat and work more like paintings with interlocking patterns within self-contained forms. They're really beautiful. See examples at juliahaack.blogspot.com..."

Haack has been lauded for her creative use of recycled materials. I appreciate art from recycled stuff.  I honor artists who display environmental consciousness in their work. But it's the quality of the work more than the material that captures my admiration. What I like about Haack's sculptures is they expand upon what Frank Stella did with his paintings in the early years - after the black stripe paintings and before the elaborate and more organic shapes he's been working on over the past couple of decades. (There's a great Stella painting from that era at SeaTac Airport if you want to see what I'm talking about.)

This past week Haack posted on Facebook a link to an online blog that featured one of her latest works. The blog is called Peek, and it is the blog of New York artist Lee Gainer. On her blog Gainer posts a work from a different featured artist each weekday, leaving each for about 10 days so visitors can scroll through and get to know new artists. Each has one featured piece and a link to the artists' websites.

Haack's piece on Peek is a sculpture called Red Bend. It consists of many adjacent and overlapping circular forms with, inside of each, overlapping and adjacent bands of red, yellow, green, blue, white and black stripes in a jangle of directions. All of these shapes and colors walk a delicate balance between clashing and harmonizing.

Other works featured on Peek include, among others, Adolescent, a strange sculpture of a man with a melted body looking way too old for the title - by Danielle Durchslag and intolerance (soft jungle gym for placating mothers), a floating sculpture by Kazumi Shiho.

This is a fun site for art lovers. Check it out. And remember those names I told you to file away. They will be showing again in Tacoma.