Arts communities are often called “ecosystems,” and true to the dynamic nature of ecosystems, arts entities come and go. Some simply don’t survive changes, while others choose to end on a high note. MadArt in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood fortunately falls into the latter camp , which has allowed the team there a swan song of a show that many arts organizations don’t get to have.
More than 50 artists have work in this final show, “ MAD STUDIO ,” all of whom have participated in MadArt’s programming since the contemporary arts organization’s founding in 2009 by Alison Milliman. Most of the works in “MAD STUDIO” are not small — MadArt has enough space to allow artists to build large-scale installations — so the venue feels rather crowded, and these works in diverse media were not curated to a theme. Someone walking into MadArt for the first time may wonder what ties them all together, even if they delight in the objects.
Put simply, the show succeeds as a fan-service anthology, in which audiences can relive experiences they’ve had with MadArt’s projects. That said, only a minority of the artists in “MAD STUDIO” have work that directly references their past installations, such as Troy Gua’s “Chrysalis Maquette,” a tiny plastic-wrapped model of a house, referring to a full-sized house that he wrapped in plastic for the “Mad Homes” show in 2011. In the same small room, a digital screen shows sprays of color and illuminated silh.
