In 2005, Northwest artist Donald Fels traveled to India on a Fulbright Fellowship to work with commercial signboard painters on a series of large-scale paintings. The paintings take as their starting point the legacy of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s 1498 voyage to India in search of a direct sea route for the spice trade. Fels sought to examine how trade impacts cultures and populations beyond the simple exchange of goods. Fels and his collaborators created enamel on aluminum paintings in the style of hand-painted billboards (signboards). Most of the painters had formerly worked as billboard painters—until recently, all billboards in India were hand-painted, but digital technology has replaced this trade. Fels provided ideas, sketches, and photographs as starting points but encouraged the painters to alter the imagery and formulate their own interpretations. Their bright color palette and strong graphic narratives make visually arresting statements, capturing the Indian painters’ responses to the effects of trade and globalization. What Is a Trade? is paired with the exhibition Oasis: Western Dreams of the Ottoman Empire from the Dahesh Museum of Art. Both exhibitions address Western conceptions and representations of the East. Both raise questions about how these views affected and continue to affect relationships and cultural exchange between the West and the East.
This exhibition is organized by Tacoma Art Museum and supported by members of the Patron Circle.
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- Read news release
- Exhibition Resources
- Buy the catalogue
As part of Tacoma Art Museum’s Northwest Perspective series on Northwest artists, What Is a Trade? is accompanied by a full-color illustrated catalogue with essays by artist Donald Fels, Greg Bell, Curator and Collection Coordinator at 4Culture in Seattle, and Samuel K. Parker, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at University of Washington, Tacoma. The catalogue is available for sale in the Museum Store or through our online E-store. Faculty and students with ID receive a 10 percent discount on this catalogue when purchasing it from the Museum Store. - Donald Fels's Web site
Read about the artist Donald Fels and learn about his other projects. - Vasco Project Web site
Learn more about Donald Fels's "Vasco Project," and see more images of his collaborative work with signboard painters in South India.
Donald Fels on Trading Stories
Thursday, October 16
6 - 7 pm
Northwest artist Donald Fels discusses how his work has evolved over the past two decades leading up to the signboard paintings in his current exhibition at the museum, as well as the recent paintings on view at the UW Tacoma Gallery.
As part of Free Third Thursday and downtown Tacoma’s ArtWalk, programming and museum admission are free from 10 am to 8 pm.
HALF-DAY PROGRAM: Melding Currents: Donald Fels and South Indian Sign Painters
Saturday, November 15, 1:30 - 4 pm
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Samuel Parker, Associate Professor at UW Tacoma and exhibition catalogue essayist, discusses how images in What Is a Trade? relate to historical changes in perceptions about the East and West in post-colonial India and the correlation between fine and commercial arts. He will be followed by Gary Hamilton, Professor of Sociology at UW Seattle, who will consider how global trade and consumerism prompt changes in ideologies and innovation. The program will conclude with a discussion led by artist Donald Fels expanding on the question, "What does trading across borders look like?" Exhibition catalogues will be signed in the Museum Store after the program.
Cost: $10; $5 for members and students with ID. Price includes museum admission.
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Captions:
Donald Fels and his collaborators, Billboardamatic, 2005. Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Contemporary, Seattle, Washington. Photo: Donald Fels
Donald Fels and his collaborators, Global Trade, 2005. Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Contemporary, Seattle, Washington. Photo: Donald Fels