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READINGS & TALKS
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I can’t help but be enchanted with Italian and Italian American baked goods like tiramisu, rainbow cookies, and cannoli, so I’m particularly excited about the release of two-time James Beard nominee Renato Poliafito’s new cookbook Dolci! American Baking with an Italian Accent, which is packed with sweet and savory recipes such as Aperol spritz cakes, butter cookies, cacio e pepe arancini, sourdough focaccia, and more. (Renato owns the cozy Brooklyn bakery and cafe Ciao, Gloria and has co-authored four other cookbooks.) Join him for a chat, Q&A, and signing at Book Larder. JB
(Book Larder, Fremont)
LIVE MUSIC
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Electric Light Orchestra is not a band I would typically like. It’s all men, classified as “prog rock,” and has songs called “Evil Woman” and “Sweet Talkin’ Woman.” But here’s the thing, I love them. I bought a copy of Eldorado when I was thirteen years old because of the Wizard of Oz album cover—What followed was a massive obsession with cheesy, orchestral glam rock. Drop the needle on “Can’t Get It Out of My Head” and you’ll immediately want to feather your hair and zip up your platform boots. Founding frontman Jeff Lynne will return to Seattle with the band’s current iteration, which includes a chamber of string musicians. AV
(Climate Pledge Arena, Uptown)
COMEDY
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I work hard to stay removed from the world of weddings, nightclubs, and biological clocks, but I can’t deny that Iliza Shlesinger’s Netflix specials on those topics, like Confirmed Kills and Elder Millennial, are stunningly funny. Hot take: Shlesinger’s animal impressions are her ace in the hole. So don’t be off-put by her Elder Millennial impression, because that’s just a warm-up for when she becomes a baby-craving dragon. PORTLAND MERCURY ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR SUZETTE SMITH
(The Crocodile, Belltown)
FILM
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Featuring dozens of short films created by Seattle talent over 48 short hours in July, the 48 Hour Film Project is a fast-paced, pressure cooker film series that honors the quickest of the quick. The project bids filmmakers to “draw a genre from a hat and incorporate specific elements such as a character, prop, and line of dialogue into their films,” so the results feel improvisational and invigorated. Celebrate the best of the submissions at this screening, award ceremony, and announcement of which winners will “advance to Filmapalooza and possibly screen at the Cannes Film Festival.” Who knows—one of the hurried flicks you catch might go on to future greatness. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown)
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This year’s outdoor movie offerings at Marymoor Park are old-school, dog-friendly, Americana F-U-N, complete with live music and familiar flicks beneath the barely visible stars. (We live in a light-polluted city—can’t have it all.) The much-loved summer film series will close out with The Princess Bride on August 28. (You know the drill on that one—a mythical kingdom, a kidnapping, a love that transcends all evils, and so on.) LC
(Marymoor Park, Redmond)
PERFORMANCE
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Contemporary dance company Whim W’Him has returned for its fifth year, presenting pop-up performances that “breathe life” into public spaces like Martha Washington Park, Jefferson Park, and other scenic spots. On August 28, they’ll head to Martha Washington Park and West Jefferson Park for evening programs overlooking expansive grass fields. Spread out a picnic blanket and enjoy the show as the city bustles on in the background. If you’re headed to Bumbershoot this weekend, you’ll be able to catch them there as well. LC
(Various locations)
READINGS & TALKS
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In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Anna Marie Tendler has checked herself into an inpatient psychiatric center for self-harm, depression, and intense anxiety. While describing a battery of tests, therapy sessions, and relationships with the medical professionals around her, Tendler also relates decades of negative experiences with men, leaving one man conspicuously out of the narrative: her ex-husband, former “wife guy” John Mulaney. Responses to the book have been polarizing. Some view Tendler as a poster child for white feminism, someone with boundless financial privilege and little direction, while others see her book as a mordant, frank portrayal of mental illness and womanhood in the 21st century. Whatever your opinion, it’s safe to say that Men Have Called Her Crazy complicates the narrative of Tendler as merely someone’s ex-wife. She’ll be joined in conversation by Jen Soriano, author of Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing. LC
(Town Hall Seattle, First Hill)
VISUAL ART
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This free all-day event invites attendees to check out the opening of Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, which is also celebrating its return to a five-day schedule (Wednesday–Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm). Explore the whole museum—there’s plenty on view in its expansive collection galleries to keep your eyes occupied—before scoping out Meot, which features pieces from art patron Frank Bayley’s expansive collections, including buncheong ware, paintings, photography, calligraphy, and wood pieces. LC
(Seattle Asian Art Museum, Capitol Hill)
COMEDY
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Dating is downright spooky business, so any opportunity to laugh at the whole process of “finding the one” is more than welcome. Enter Fun & Flirty Productions, which blends comedy and “interactive dating experiences” to make the whole shebang a little more survivable (and also very funny). PowerPoint master and professional singles consultant Zahnae Aquino will be joined by local humorists on stage. Hey, there are weirder ways to meet your soulmate. LC
(Comedy/Bar, Capitol Hill)
LIVE MUSIC
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If you drive past Climate Pledge Arena this week and see a marquee that says “Kings of Leon with Phantogram,” it may feel like you’ve been transported back to 2008. The Nashville-born brothers will bring their growly garage rock to Seattle to support their new album, Can We Please Have Fun. While the audience will surely await older hits like “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody,” I hope they’ll let the boys have some fun and play new songs! AV
(Climate Pledge Arena, Uptown)
READINGS & TALKS
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They’re odd, but like, in a good way. And it turns out the avant-garde drag diva, legendary cackler, and “authentic weirdo” Yvie Oddly is also a writer. All About Yvie: Into the Oddity offers “an intimate and in-depth look” into the life of the RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 winner, starting with their childhood and moving through journeys of self-discovery in gender and sexual expression. I’d expect nothing less than candid tea-spilling from the alien-glam powerhouse. Oddly will be joined by pop culture YouTuber and former Stranger staff writer Matt Baume, author of the 2023 tome Honey, I’m Homo! Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture. LC
(Elliott Bay Book Company, Capitol Hill)
COMEDY
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See someone? Say something. I Saw U, The Stranger‘s take on Craigslist Missed Connections, returned in March, which means you can read pickup lines like “How’s your praxis? Because I think we could be more than just a theory ;)” whenever you want. Unexpected Productions has since devised an improvised response to the column, transforming the weekly listings into comedy sets that “imagine what would happen if the individuals actually went out on a date.” I hope they address the love blossoming at Biscuit Bitch. LC
(Unexpected Productions’ Market Theater, Pike Place Market, Friday–Saturday)
EXHIBIT
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Stephanie Syjuco’s artworks were objects of my obsession in art school—the Manila-born conceptual artist often draws from archives, museums, and library collections to craft disruptive responses to colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, and war. It’ll appeal to you if you’re a nerd for research and good politics. In Stephanie Syjuco: After/Images, the artist considers the camera, describing it as a “technology of imperialism that records and creates racialized American histories.” The exhibition’s reconstructed archival photographs, videos, and installations center the US occupation of the Philippines, American colonization overseas, and the troubling ideology of Manifest Destiny. LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, Wednesday–Sunday)
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In my opinion, happiness could be defined as 200,000 Lego bricks arranged in “hands-on construction areas” for free play, and MOHAI’s latest exhibition makes the dream come true. Towers of Tomorrow also features models of skyscrapers from all over the world, constructed by a real-deal “Lego-certified professional,” Ryan “Brickman” McNaught. (Cool job alert!) Visitors can scope McNaught’s plastic creations and imagine their own by adding to a futuristic Lego “metropolis” inside the exhibit. LC
(MOHAI, South Lake Union, Monday–Sunday)
FESTIVALS
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After a four-year hiatus due to financial problems, low attendance numbers, and production shakeups, local collective New Rising Sun and nonprofit arts/education organization Third Stone revived Seattle’s most iconic festival last year for a 50th-anniversary celebration that expanded the definition of “artist.” With promised attractions like a cat circus, pole dancing pavilion, and wig farm, this year’s festival feels reminiscent of Bumbershoot 2008, when I saw a sex-positive paper bag puppet show right after being trampled at the main stage as Paramore performed “Misery Business.” Ah, the good old days! Get ready for two days of local and national acts, including Pavement (whofirst played the festival in 1999!), Cyprus Hill, James Blake, Carl Cox, Freddie Gibbs, Aly & AJ, Thee Sacred Souls, Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Kim Gordon, and BADBADNOTGOOD. AV
(Seattle Center, Uptown, Saturday–Sunday)
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Lest you forget, most of Washington state is farmland, which translates to communities with county fairs. Check out the biggest and best there is at the annual Washington State Fair, founded in 1900 in Puyallup. (If you don’t know how to pronounce the town’s name, ask a local and brace yourself for the jingle they sing back). Featuring outdoor concerts, rodeos, quilt and flower displays, vegetable creations, baby bunnies, and photo exhibits from local and international artists, there’s fair fun of all stripes. Plus, ’90s rock band Matchbox Twenty, rapper Wiz Khalifa (with support from Burien local Travis Thompson), and comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias are on the tour circuit this year. Don’t forget to grab a classic Fisher fair scone to munch while walking around, or get a baker’s dozen to take home—my mother always freezes them to enjoy beyond the summer season. SL
(Washington State Fair Events Center, Puyallup, Friday–Monday)
FILM
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The American Genre Film Archive, aka the “world’s only nonprofit archive and film distributor dedicated to preserving and protecting the greatest genre films of all time,” celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, which means it’s time for you to plop your butt in a seat for some of the weirdest exploitation filmmaking, found footage feasts, underground trash art, and riot grrrl flicks imaginable. AGFA makes rescuing forgotten features look easy—their archives house over six thousand 35mm film prints. In partnership with Something Weird Video and AGFA, SIFF will screen some solid selections from the collection. Expect everything from The Zodiac Killer, a ’71 flick “made to capture the real-life Zodiac Killer, but instead deliver[ing]…outrageous and compelling ‘tabloid horror,'” to John Cassavetes films, Sarah Jacobson’s punk-inflected DIY films, and the world’s first found footage horror. LC
(SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Capitol Hill, Monday–Friday)
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After galactic badass Ellen Ripley (and Jonesy) somehow survive a catastrophic hurtle through space aboard the Nostromo, everyone’s favorite mega-capitalists at the Weyland-Yutani corporation have deteriorated the Jackson’s Star colony into a dystopic hellscape whose atmosphere is so thick and toxic that inhabitants can’t see the sun. Desperate for another life, the colony’s orphans and misfits team up to steal cryostasis chambers from a suspiciously abandoned spacecraft. You can probably guess what abject horrors might be aboard that derelict craft, but who am I to spoil it for ya? Just remember: In space, no one can hear you scream. Alien: Romulus is a fun return to the original Alien form, full of dingy retrofuturism and nods to the original for the real xeno-fans. LC
(SIFF Cinema Downtown, Belltown, Monday–Sunday)
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The electrified, freaked-out world of Mandy is challenging to describe, but picture a giallo flick set to a drone metal soundtrack featuring a demonic biker gang, and you’re maybe halfway there. Nicolas Cage is at the absolute top of his game here, and I say that without a hint of sarcasm. He plays an ’80s-era Pacific Northwest logger-turned-chainsaw-wielding-revenge-hound, and director Panos Cosmatos’ phantasmagoric vision is the visual equivalent of a lucid dream. Just trust me on this one. Come prepared for the kind of ultraviolence of a “disintegrating rock opera.” LC
(Central Cinema, Central District, Monday–Wednesday)
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New German Cinema master Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s rebellious style blends Rococo mystique and masculine burlesque in Querelle, a lush adaptation of Jean Genet’s homoerotic melodrama Querelle of Brest. The director’s barbed swan song, released posthumously after his sudden death at age 37, tells the tale of a French sailor whose visit to a port brothel leads to murder, corruption, and queer explorations. Genet’s showy romanticism has inspired numerous creators over the years, and author Navid Sinaki is now counted among those ranks—his debut novel, Medusa of the Roses, follows queer lovers in modern-day Tehran. Grab a copy of the book at this release, which will include a screening of Querelle. LC
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, Friday–Sunday)
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I might have learned about Conner O’Malley’s comedy through the dulcet tones of Joe Pera Talks With You, but the NYC-via-Chicago writer and comedian’s energy is essentially the anti-Pera: He’s frenetic, high-octane, and desperately weird. In his first feature film, O’Malley’s anxious, post-internet approach to comedy translates to the screen in this mockumentary about a hapless Midwest suburban rapper and his friends, who attempt to write and record a rap album in a single night in 2009. Producer Harris Mayersohn and others will offer a post-film Q&A on August 31, and director Conner O’Malley, Mayersohn, and cast member Eric Rahill will offer a post-film Q&A on September 1. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, Saturday–Sunday)
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Catherine Breillat’s filmmaking approach is very, well, French—she often seeks to illuminate the taboo in provocative explorations of desire, violence, and women’s psychology. Grand Illusion’s celebration of the controversy queen spans every decade of her directing career, including screenings of brand-new 4K restorations (A Real Young Girl, 36 Fillette, and PerfectLove) and Janus Films’ 35mm print of my favorite Breillat, the abrupt and rattling 2001 film Fat Girl. LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, Monday–Sunday)
FOOD & DRINK
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If you couldn’t get enough of Li’l Woody’s Burger Month, in which the local fast-food chain offers new burger specials created in collaboration with local chefs each week, get ready for their Seafood Month. This version gives the Burger Month format a fishy spin, with exclusive sandwich creations inspired by the bounty of the sea. This week’s chef specials are the Emerald City Catfish Sandwich (fried catfish, remoulade, lettuce, and tomato on a Li’l Woody’s bun) from Stevie Allen of Emerald City Fish & Chips (August 20-26) and the “LTD Edition Burger” (sake-marinated black cod, cabbage, white miso aioli, and shredded lettuce on a Li’l Woody’s bun) from Keiji Tsukasaki of LTD Edition Sushi (August 27-September 2). JB
(Li’l Woody’s, Monday–Sunday)
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Happy rosé season to those who celebrate! Whatever your thoughts on the ubiquitous blush beverage, it’s hard to imagine a drink better suited for summer. Throughout the month, the farm-to-table pop-up-turned-restaurant Three Sacks Full will offer a weekly rotation of rosé specials by the glass, culminating in a special rosé dinner on August 28. (Co-owner Matthew Curtis is a licensed sommelier, so you can expect some well-curated picks.) JB
(Three Sacks Full, Roosevelt, Monday–Saturday)
GEEK & GAMING
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Unsurprisingly, PAX (originally the “Penny Arcade Expo”) was started in our tech-centric neck of the woods. Since its 2004 founding, the expo has expanded to include multiple annual meetups across the globe, with Seattle hosting PAX West every Labor Day weekend. This massive video game convention and celebration of all things gaming boasts panels with special guests like famed voice actors Suzie Yeung, Britt Baron, and Briana White, new game demonstrations, hands-on activities, and an exhibit hall with booths spanning multiple fandoms. Tickets can be on the pricey side, but there are always lots of fun (and cheaper) affiliated parties going on around town. SL
(Seattle Convention Center, Downtown, Friday–Monday)
LIVE MUSIC
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Apple Jam are possibly the most arcane Beatles tribute band in the world. While most of these Moptop manqués are content to replicate the best-known songs from the Fab Four’s rich catalog (not that there’s anything wrong with that), Apple Jam dig way deeper. For example, their 2018 album, Off the White Album, finds Apple Jam tackling 11 songs that the Beatles cut when in sessions for 1968’s The Beatles, a fertile time of exploration. Some of the tracks were recorded by other artists (“Goodbye” by Mary Hopkin, “Step Inside Love” by Cilla Black, “Sour Milk Sea” by Jackie Lomax), while some outtakes simply eluded all but the most ardent Beatles fans. Thankfully for them, Apple Jam have the skills to recreate the Beatles’ melodic magic and vocal sonority in order to spotlight the obscure corners of their evergreen output. STRANGER CONTRIBUTOR DAVE SEGAL
(Triple Door, Downtown, Wednesday–Thursday)
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I spent a long time disregarding Dave Matthews until revisiting his hit song “Crash Into Me” in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. In the film, BFFs Lady Bird and Julie cry along to the song in their car while holding hands—both heartbroken over unrequited love. The scene is humorous and sincere, giving me a whole new perspective on Matthews’ jammy dad rock. Nowadays, I find myself unironically listening to it. Life is too damn short to hate on Dave Matthews! He’ll take over the Gorge this Labor Day weekend to support his new album Walk Around The Moon, which Pitchfork notes taps “into his gentler side with the wisdom and grace afforded by age.” AV
(Gorge Amphitheatre, Quincy, Friday–Saturday)
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Metal legends Metallica will ride the lightning to Seattle over Labor Day weekend to support 72 Seasons, their first album in seven years. Despite landing on Exclaim!’s 25 Worst Album Covers of 2023 list, the album garnered a favorable response from fans and critics for its emotionally moving lyrics and somber melodies. They will be joined by fellow metal mavens Pantera and Mammoth WVH on night one and Five Finger Death Punch and Ice Nine Kills on night two. AV
(Lumen Field, SoDo, Friday–Saturday)
VISUAL ART
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I wasn’t previously familiar with artist Andrea Dezsö’s work, but I’ve quickly become a fan: Dezsö’s detailed pochoir stenciling techniques, charming birch-carved designs, embroidered musings, and pyrovitreography reveal an artist who fears no medium. Her work also feels distinctly more bouba than kiki. I’m in love with the weird little guys populating her compositions, and I want to know all about their folktale-informed world, which also grapples with “women’s roles, authoritarianism, family, ideological and societal influence on the individual, relationships with nature, and the body.” You’ll probably dig it, too. LC
(Traver Gallery, Downtown, Tuesday–Saturday; closing)
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Calling all puppet lovers! Hidden Worlds: The Films of LAIKA will invite visitors to peek behind the scenes of screen faves like Coraline, The Boxtrolls, and the forthcoming Wildwood created by Oregon stop-motion animation studio LAIKA. The exhibition will grant “unprecedented access” to the studio’s advanced production techniques, complete with puppets, set displays, and sneak peeks. LC
(MoPOP, Uptown, Monday–Tuesday/Thursday–Sunday)
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Lino Tagliapietra: Maestro, Mentore welcomes the legendary Venetian glassblower, maestro Lino Tagliapietra, to exhibit works alongside his team members, Nancy Callan, Jen Elek, John Kiley, Dante Marioni, and Dave Walters, for an exhibition that “tell[s] a story of artistic mentorship and mutual reverence.” The team’s sense of pattern and angular forms is dizzying to behold. LC
(Traver Gallery, Downtown, Tuesday–Saturday; closing)
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Even if you consider yourself a counterculture connoisseur, you might not be familiar with the West Coast’s alternative art history, which tends to be left out of art history classes. Enter Poke in the Eye, a new exhibition spotlighting ’60s- and ’70s-era aesthetic practices that shirked the minimalist, chilly movements coming out of the East Coast at that time. Seattle and Bay Area artists were “intentionally offbeat,” splashing color across figural and narrative compositions and making weird mouth sculptures. Hey, it’s always been a little irreverent out here, right? LC
(Seattle Art Museum, Downtown, Wednesday–Sunday)
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As someone who just spent a few weeks in eastern Oregon, the words “smoke season” elicit an all-too-familiar burn in the throat. Christian French’s Untitled (Exodus series), a brutal red-tinged and desolate photograph featured in SOIL’s new group exhibition Smoke Season, elicits a similar somatic memory. “The Anthropocene has become the Pyrocene,” the show materials assert; I’m intrigued by Tim Marsden’s fiery embroidery and janet galore’s Smoke Break, a three-minute video looped on a vintage television set installed in the gallery. LC
(SOIL, Pioneer Square, Friday–Saturday; closing)
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While you might not be welcome to touch the works in the cozy-sounding Tacoma Art Museum exhibition Soft Power, visitors are encouraged to join in on the creation of a large-scale, collaborative soft artwork in the gallery space. Soft Power includes textile explorations of cultural heritage, personal narratives, social criticism, and expressions of care, including works by key contemporary creators like Allyce Wood, Alexis Lee Ortiz-Duarte, Marie Watt, Marita Dingus, Monyee Chau, and many others. LC
(Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Wednesday–Sunday; closing)
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Zachary Schomburg, a Portland poet who “combines narrative techniques with surrealism to great effect” (Stranger news editor Rich Smith) is my favorite kind of person, insistent on creating in myriad mediums. And as an illustrator and painter, Schomburg’s work still feels informed by his writing practice. Cake, Hands, and Light, the artist’s first solo show at Koplin Del Rio, “leans into light and color” with juicy, vivid compositions and great titles. “Pity the Mean,” “Sorry Head,” and “Pawn Cake” are some of my faves. LC
(Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Georgetown, Wednesday–Saturday)