Rid yourself of absolutes. Purity is a tyranny of the abstract. Everything is in flux: in darkness there is always light but equally true is that pleasure is always accompanied by pain. No pure state exists. These are the hard-won lessons on full display in the paintings of Drie Chapek, showing now at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle.

As long as I’ve been on this planet art has suffered from a so-called “crisis of criticism.” What I have come to recognize is that this crisis is simply a problem of gatekeeping for the Western Artistic Canon.

Making a Better Painting: Thinking Through Practice examines the “absurdity, passion, and even shame” of being a painter today. It is an ambitious survey of contemporary Northwest Painters, and exemplifies the regional shift in artists’ ambition we’ve witnessed over the last decade: each of the 18 artists make a living largely outside of this region.

Made in L.A. 2018, the latest iteration of the Hammer Museum's biennial, is a powerful antidote to the fatalistic, apocolyptic imaginaries dominating 2018's media landscape.

André's work pries open a space for us to acknowledge the horror of existing in the face of so much suffering, while also constructing meaning from the fragments we find along the way.

Heimir Björgúlfsson makes art populated by birds and wild animals, snippets of the natural world, and bits of detritus evidencing the human hand.

Grace Lynne makes art about her relationship with herself "as a Black woman, and the vulnerability that that entails." She also works in social impact design and "strives to stimulate empathy and critical thinking through art."