New York–based artist Corin Hewitt spent one week in September 2007 on view in a gallery in Portland, Oregon, creating vivid and complex still lifes out of a variety of materials, both organic and inorganic. Hewitt photographed and often rephotographed these still lifes, producing a dynamic body of 75 color images. The collection, called Weavings: Performance #2 (Portland, Oregon), goes on view to the public for the first time as part of the SAM Next series. Hewitt’s work explores memory, decay, preservation and transformation in relation to personal and cultural history, looking at how they relate to the mediums of photography, sculpture and performance.
Last spring, the Seattle Art Museum launched the contemporary art exhibition program SAM Next. The series introduces audiences to emerging or underappreciated artists working in the Northwest, around the United States and internationally.