Artists to Get Excited About: SuttonBeresCuller

After visiting the houses-turned-art-installations, Mad Homes (which all of you should also do, AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE), I was reminded how consistently awesome the artist group SuttonBeresCuller is. The group consists of John Sutton, Ben Beres, and Zac Culler, who met while attending Cornish College of the Arts back in the 90’s. Their projects are always inventive and they always have an amazing knack for pushing the audience to participate in small ways. You’re not forced too far outside of your comfort zone but, often times, their pieces depend on you for them to really work.

For Mad Homes, the group created an intricately woven web of red canvas ties that connect two houses together. The ties stretch and tangle their way through the outside and inside of the houses, forcing viewers to wander through a type of jungle gym. As I was weaving my way/tripping over SuttonBeresCuller’s work, I started think about the other amazing pieces they’ve put together recently.

This past fall, the Henry Art Gallery hosted their piece, Panoptos, which allowed viewers to interact with art in a whole new way. The artists scoured the Henry’s permanent collection and then made a salon-style display of about 150 pieces. The group then created a camera apparatus that could scan the wall of art, which allowed viewers to view works up close and take and upload pictures for others to see. It was a great mixture of old methods of displaying art and new methods of interacting with it.

The group’s latest installation will be in the old Publix Hotel lobby in the International District as a part of Seattle Storefronts (read about that here). Let me be honest, I haven’t actually seen this installation yet, but I’m still going to recommend it to you because I know it’s going to be completely worth your time.