Kenneth Showell Artworks in association with wonder collective

presents

Abstract Experiments

Selected Work of Kenneth Showell (1939-1997)

opening Reception during the belltown artwalk

April 11, 2025• 6:00pm-9:00pm

Labour Temple • 2800 1st Avenue • Seattle, WA 98121

Purchase paintings here

1975, 50×40, Oil on Canvas

Monin

1975, 66×44, Oil on Canvas

Yres I

1975, 66×44, Oil on Canvas

Thicket II

1976, 65×42, Oil on Canvas

Thicket III

1976, 75×43, Oil on Canvas

Duke's Lady III

1980, 30×72, Oil on Canvas

Sea Jam XII

1981, 36×42, il on Canvas

Sea Jam X

1981, 30x36, Oil on Canvas

Trane's Sleve IX

1981, 45 x 39.25, Oil on Canvas

Isobel's Table II

1982, 54×48, Oil on Canvas

Showell Paints, New York, ca. 1980s

Kenneth Showell and Lyrical Abstracts, New York, ca. 1970

Showell Studio, New York, ca. 1970

Showell, Time Lapse with Napoli, Duke's Lady, and Other Works, New York, ca. 1980

Hannah Palin, Showell's Studio, New York, ca. 1970

Nikki Palin, Hannah Palin, Kenneth Showell, Indiana, ca. 1963

Kenneth Showell, Hannah Palin, Nikki Palin, Kansas City, ca. 1962

Showell, New York, ca. 1969

Kenneth Showell, New York, ca. 1970

THE SHOW

In 2018, Hannah Palin, a Seattle film archivist, received a storage pod filled with work created by her biological father, Kenneth Showell, a New York painter and photographer who died in 1997. Palin spent years documenting, researching, and organizing her inheritance of over 1300 canvases, drawings, pastels, lithographs, and watercolors.

Showell’s abstract paintings of the mid-1970s - early 1980s were pivotal linking his early Lyrical Abstracts to his later Landscapes. It is during this time that he experimented with style and form, ultimately leaving abstraction behind for plein air painting and representational works.

Showell listened exclusively to jazz while he painted, so the works in Abstract Experiments are influenced by those musicians and their compositions. The Sea Jam series is a riff on Duke Ellington’s C Jam Blues; Trane’s Sleeve refers to John Coltrane’s GreenSleeves; Monin is possibly a play on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Moanin’; Isobel’s Table is winking at Charles Mingus’ Ysabel’s Table Dance and Duke’s Lady is perhaps drawing on another Duke Ellington tune Sophisticated Lady. Abstract Experiments: Selected Works of Kenneth Showell (1939-1997) is a celebration of Showell’s creative journey.

The show in association with Wonder Collective opens during the Belltown Artwalk on April 11th from 6-9pm at The Labour Temple (2800 1st Avenue • Seattle, WA) and runs through May 31st. Abstract Experiments will be open to the public during the Belltown Artwalk on May 9th from 6-9pm or by appointment all other times.

BIOGRAPHY

The son of a sheet metal worker, Kenneth Leroy Showell was born in 1939 in Huron, South Dakota and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. After receiving his B.F.A. at the Kansas City Art Institute and an M.F.A. from Indiana University he moved to New York City in 1965, setting up a studio in SoHo. Ken’s abstract work with spray paint and folded canvas garnered significant attention. His distinctive approach earned inclusion in the 1967 and 1969 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Showell was also included in the Whitney’s 1971 Lyrical Abstraction exhibition, and many other important group shows and surveys of contemporary painting. His work is held by prominent museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art.

From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Showell was represented by the prestigious David Whitney Gallery which featured the work of painters such as Dan Christiansen, Mary Heilmann, Ronnie Landfield, Pat Lipsky, and David Reed. These artists, along with Showell, were eventually grouped under the heading Lyrical Abstraction, a term coined by the collector Larry Aldrich to describe those painters who were moving away from the "geometric, hard-edge, and minimal, toward more lyrical, sensuous, romantic abstractions in colors which are softer and more vibrant.”

In the 1980s Showell’s interest drifted to landscape and plein air painting. He began to explore computer generated and video imagery as part of his creative practice. He would bring a Hi-8 video camera to Central Park, focus it on scenes he found interesting, and record until the tape came to an end. Afterwards he would return to his studio and paint directly from the image captured on videotape. The process gave his paintings a quality of motion even though his subjects, such as a skyline or a tree, were inherently static.

WONDER COLLECTIVE

Wonder Collective is the brainchild of Andrea Sanders and Cody Guyer. They promote work from artists for months-long showings, in addition to providing retail space for vendors during the Belltown Art Walk at Seattle’s historic Labour Temple. They are dedicated to the promotion of artwork from a diverse range of upcoming Seattle artists. With their focus on unique forms of expression, it brings them great joy to give these creators a platform from which they can display their work, often for the very first time.

LABOUR TEMPLE

The Labour Temple in Seattle, originally the Seattle Labor Temple, is a historic building in Belltown that was built in 1942 by labor unions and served as a hub for union activities and offices for nearly 80 years, now serving as a co-working community hub, offering private offices, team suites, and monthly membership opportunities.

KENNETH SHOWELL ARTWORKS

Kenneth Showell Artworks was established to manage the Kenneth Showell collection and to handle donations, sales, licensing, and merchandise

For more information:

Hannah Palin, kennethshowellartworks@gmail.com, (206) 321-8301