Breeze Block Gallery

April 29, 2013, 8:30am

Unpacked Cargo: Mary Iverson Inside and Out

Shipping containers have a strange relationship to the city of Seattle.  Their accompanying series of orange and white cranes frame our skyline as highly visible but distantly silent landmarks.  With imported products from Asia on the rise and easier movement across the Arctic Ocean due to climate change, the ever-larger stacks of building block-like crates and their colossal vessels that once seemed to be background noise for the city have become poignant emblems of the present.  Washington artist Mary Iverson (NAP MFA Annual 2001) was ahead of the game on the relevance of the shipping container, interjecting it into familiar natural landscapes in her paintings and public art for years.