
Northwest Perspective Series
Since its founding in 1935, the Tacoma Art Museum has been dedicated to the art and artists of the Northwest. The museum strives to be a community resource for championing and preserving the region’s art history through its collections, exhibitions, and learning programs as well as through research into the life and work of important Northwest artists. One key contribution is the museum’s Northwest Perspective Series of exhibitions and accompanying scholarly catalogues. From its origins in 1992 as the 12th Street Series of mid-career retrospectives, Northwest Perspective has since expanded to alternate between historical and contemporary artists. The Northwest Perspective Series continues to provide important new scholarship about the region’s foremost artists. Our commitment to the series remains central to our mission of supporting the artists of the Northwest.
Exhibitions
Captive Light: The Life and Photography of Ella E. McBride
March 17 – July 8, 2018
Zhi LIN: In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads
June 27, 2017 – February 18, 2018
Coast to Cascades: C.C. McKim’s Impressionist Vision
November 12, 2016 – March 26, 2017
Roger Shimomura—An American Knockoff
June 20 – September 13, 2015
Organized by Museum of Art, Washington State University
A Punch of Color: Fifty Years of Painting by Camille Patha, 2014
Austere Beauty: The Art of Z. Vanessa Helder
July 27 – October 20, 2013
Marie Watt: Lodge
June 30 – October 7, 2012
Organized by the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University
A Turbulent Lens: The Photographic Art of Virna Haffer
July 2 – November 6, 2011
Where Sky Meets Earth: The Luminous Landscapes of Victoria Adams
July 10 – October 3, 2010
Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden
June 27 – September 20, 2009
What Is a Trade? Donald Fels and the Signboard Painters of South India
September 13, 2008 – January 18, 2009
Veiled Northwest: Photographs by Mary Randlett
September 1, 2007 – May 18, 2008
Between Clouds of Memory: The Ceramic Art of Akio Takamori, 2006
Organized by Arizona State University Art Museum
The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy
October 8, 2005 – January 1, 2006
Scott Fife
September 18, 2004 – January 2, 2005
Look Alikes: The Decal Plates of Howard Kottler
September 4 – December 14, 2004
12th Street Series
Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwendolyn Knight
January 14 – May 2, 2003
Jack Dollhausen: A 30 Year Start
April 19 – June 16, 2002
Rick Bartow
March 27 – June 17, 2001
Jill Reynolds: Threshold, 2000
Terence Johnson: Commencement Bay, 1999
Petland: An Installation by Kathy Glowen, 1998
The Jewelry of Ken Cory: Play Disguised, 1997
Merrill Wagner: Works for Walls, Floors, and Fields, 1997
Robert Helm, 1995
Helen Lessick: The Crowning Glory of Tacoma, 1995
Donald Fels: Trading Stories, 1994
Keiko Hara: 100 Gates, 1994
Trimpin: PHFFT-ARRGH, 1993
Paintings & Drawings by Mary Henry, 1992