We are pleased to announce Beautiful and Perfect, an exhibition of work created by 2025 Artists In Residence Colleen Louise Barry and Julia Monté. Please join us to celebrate:
Opening reception at Mutuus Studio: September 5th, 6 PM – 9 PM
Additional exhibition hours: September 6th, 11 AM – 4 PM
Open by appointment: September 8th – 12th
Closing reception: September 13th, 1 PM – 5 PM, artist talk at 2 PM
Location: Mutuus Studio 6118 12th Ave South, Seattle, WA 98108
Reception is free and open to the public; all ages welcome.
To visit on weekdays, make an appointment by contacting mphillips@recology.com
Beautiful and Perfect
After four months working with materials plucked from the waste stream at the Recology King County MRF, Colleen Louise Barry and Julia Monté present their finished artworks in the exhibit Beautiful and Perfect. From mylar balloons and kiddie pools to Styrofoam and crushed glass, no object has been left behind! Threaded through their respective aesthetics and experiences is a shared interest in seeking out recurring forms found in both manmade structures and nature, such as the geometries of shells and stadiums. What emerges are two distinct bodies of work that find resonance in echoes and overlaps, where the form of a thing is explored and exhausted until it has been broken down into something altogether new, or made whole again. Perfect (and beautiful) either way you slice it.
This year’s artists
Colleen Louise Barry is an artist, writer, and teacher. Her artist books, sculpture, photography, and installation work have been shown at the Seattle Art Museum, The Factory, The Hedreen Gallery, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been published in Poetry Northwest, Sixth Finch, jubilat, and elsewhere. Her first collection of poems, COLLEEN, was published by After Hours Editions in 2022. She formerly ran the independent publishing and curatorial projects Mount Analogue, Gramma, and Angel Tears. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently a member of SOIL. Additionally, she works as a teacher and in various capacities with young people, helping them to build community-organizing skills through art.
Julia Monté is an artist passionate about making, writing, and talking about art. She received her BFA in painting and creative writing at the Kansas City Art Institute in 2018. She runs an online publication for nuanced art-criticism titled, Informality Blog. She is a member of SOIL Gallery and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, recently shown at Tlaxcala3 in Mexico City. Growing up in the burgeoning metroplex of Dallas, Texas, she has long been enchanted by stilted highway overpasses, and the seemingly infinite layers of scaffolds on old wooden roll coasters and stadiums. These structures butt up against each other, directing mass communal experiences. Using primarily found objects discarded on the sides of roads and other recycled materials, she creates stilted scenes and intricate works about these unfolding systems and destined passengers. Her pattern-filled depictions of sprawling and undulating apparatus consider communal experiences from all vantage points, and the future of such structures.
Artist in Residence Program
The Recology King County AIR Program is a four-month art and educational residency that provides King County artists administrative support, a stipend, and access to discarded materials from the waste stream to create artwork.
During the four-month residency, artists scavenge at the Recology Material Recovery Facility, the North Seattle Transfer Station, and the Recology Stores for materials to make their art. The exhibition of completed work will be held at Mutuus Studio in Georgetown, September 6th – 13th.
Read more about the Recology AIR program here. For more information, contact Maria Phillips or Amanda Manitach.