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Want more? Here’s everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food.
Finally We Have Met: Neon Works by Yale Wolf
Nov 6–18
Yale Wolf stands out among his contemporaries not only as a master of neon, but as a master of mise-en-scène, crafting environments where neon plays both centerpiece and supporting role in larger poetic tableaux. His work reveals a knack for pulling meaning from free-form simulacral doodles and fragmented flourishes designed to illuminate and transform the objects around them, as seen earlier this year in Reclaimed, where pops of neon (steering wheel, sunroof, headlights) detailed the ghostly carcass of a rusted-out scrapyard sedan blistered by fire and pummelled by bullets. Ethereal decadence wreathed in decay! In Finally We Have Met, Wolf is bringing mirrors into the equation, including a nearly six-foot reflecting pool ringed with searing pink barbed wire. Let’s just say it: This exhibition will be a selfie paradise. But that’s no doubt by design—a case where Wolf’s mise-en-scène becomes the site of mise-en-abyme. (Hometeam Gallery) AMANDA MANITACH
LAnd SEA
Nov 8–Jan 10, 2026
Before opening their Seattle galleries, longtime friends Eleana Del Rio (Koplin Del Rio) and McLean Emenegger (AMcE) ran separate art spaces in Los Angeles. Their camaraderie continues as they team up for the group exhibit LAnd SEA, which pairs artists from both galleries to make new collaborative works. While some group shows can be meh, this one promises to ooze genuine chimeric chemistry from powerhouse duos like painters Niki Keenan + Drie Chapek, photographers Daniel Carrillo + Eirik Johnson, and artists-who-defy-boxes Tim Cross + Robert Hardgrave (who are constructing their own mini-gallery to go within the gallery). Bring cash for holiday purchases, not only from AMcE’s Niche Market in the front, but for craveable collabs like Tommy Gregory’s memento-mori mash-up with the renowned de la Torre brothers: a 30-inch hand-blown glass figure encircled by serpents, crowned with a dove where his genitals should be, grasping a tiny bottle of liquor, with a bronze skull for a head. Says Gregory: “It’s about drinking too much (and life and death, obviously).” (AMcE Creative Arts) AMANDA MANITACH
Etsuko Ichikawa: Homecoming
Through Dec 13
The combination of fire and paper doesn’t seem like a recipe for success; for Etsuko Ichikawa, it’s how you make a glass pyrograph. Ichikawa was an artist in residence at Pilchuck Glass School when, 20 years ago, she accidentally dropped a lump of molten glass onto the floor. The whiplash burn mark it left on the ground proved an “aha!” moment and the start of decades-long experimentation with her now-signature technique. To make the work she (oh so briefly) drags the melting tails of molten glass across paper, which momentarily catches fire. It’s a sight to behold at the hot shop: as much performance as painting, a ballet with flames. The unique marks left behind look like shadows of smoke and ink. It’s been a minute since Ichikawa has produced a body of pyrographs (she also makes sculpture, installations, and video, and has worked extensively with vitrified uranium glass), so be sure to catch this show. (Winston Wächter Fine Art) AMANDA MANITACH
Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature
Opens Nov 16
I am scared of bugs, and I generally find art glass to be uninteresting, so I was surprisingly intrigued by the Museum of Glass’s newest offering, Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature. The exhibit spotlights Art Nouveau and contemporary glass artists who have mimicked the forms and patterns of nature, from realistic beetles and terrifying scorpions to naturalistic pinecones and slimy salmon. For me, the star of the show is Vittorio Costantini’s series of 300+ delicate lampworked glass-insect specimens, which are to-scale and as entomologically accurate as possible. (Museum of Glass) AUDREY VANN
Gretchen Gammell: ShellBodies
Open through Nov 26
Since graduating from the Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2003, Gretchen Gammell has churned out vibrant paintings that explore the female form and mind. But her newest series, ShellBodies, turns to the abstract for an eight-year project in the making, used to cope with the transition between life and death while she was studying nursing. “My job gives me the responsibility of holding and caring for the bodies of those who go on ahead of us,” she writes. “Their unique stories are so much like the intricacies of a leaf, a petal, a washed stone. When the body transitions into death, what is left behind is a shell marbled and grooved with the history of their life.” The result is a collection of kaleidoscopic still life paintings rendered in rich gem tones with abundant clusters of shells, flowers, and fruits. (Hall Spassov Gallery, free) AUDREY VANN
More
Tonantzin Eterna Protectora: An Exploration of La Virgen de Guadalupe Through Nov 23, Columbia City Gallery, free
Fay Jones: New Paintings Through Nov 29, Studio E Gallery, free
Kim Smith Claudel: End Cycle Through Dec 6, the Vestibule, free
Jen Ament: Headtrip Through Dec 20, Spectrum Fine Art, free
Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form Through Jan 4, MoPOP
Tariqa Waters: Venus Is Missing Through Jan 4, Seattle Art Museum
Beau Dick: Insatiable Beings Through Jan 18, Frye Art Museum, free
Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism Through Jan 18, Seattle Art Museum
Cultured Commodities: Photographs from the Henry Collection Through Jan 28, Henry Art Gallery, free
Boren Banner Series: Camille Trautman Through Apr 12, Frye Art Museum, free
Priscilla Dobler Dzul: Water Carries the Stories of Our Stars Through Apr 19, Frye Art Museum, free
Jonathan Lasker: Drawings and Studies Through Sept 27, Frye Art Museum, free
Ten Thousand Things Through Spring 2027, Wing Luke Museum
Ash-Glazed Ceramics from Korea and Japan Through July 12, 2027, Seattle Art Museum
Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Bronze) Through Oct 2027, Olympic Sculpture Park, free
Gossip: Between Us Ongoing, Tacoma Art Museum
Haunted Ongoing, Tacoma Art Museum
Hello Again: Fresh From the Back Room Opens Nov 6, Greg Kucera Gallery, free
Robin Arnitz: Sanctum Opens Nov 6, Shift Gallery, free
Suneeva Saldanha: KANIYO. Tales Opens Nov 6, Gallery 110, free
Tensions of the Tangible, Curated by Jia Jia Opens Nov 6, SOIL, free
Thomas Stream: Solo Exhibit Retrospective Opens Nov 6, Stonington Gallery, free
Timea Tihanyi Opens Nov 6, Greg Kucera Gallery, free
Akio Takamori: Soul Image Opens Nov 7, James Harris Gallery, free
New Nordic: Cuisine, Aesthetics, and Place Opens Nov 15, National Nordic Museum
Aisha Harrison: Porous Body Opens Nov 22, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, free
Early Warnings
Chris Kallmyer: Song Cycle Opens Jan 10, Seattle Art Museum
Samantha Yun Wall: What We Leave Behind Opens Feb 5, Seattle Art Museum
Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest Opens Mar 5, Seattle Art Museum