Seattle Art Fair opens along with a new alternative across town

If you haven’t been to the stadium district recently you may not have met its newest resident: a giant woman — rosy cheeked in a blue sundress — lying on a grassy expanse and surrounded by bright daisies. She’s the star of a new mural called “A Soft Place to Land,” by Seattle artist Cristina Martinez (recently named a finalist for the 2026 Neddy Award in painting). Stretching 150 feet by 70 feet across a historic brick building on the Occidental Promenade, it’s the largest permanent mural ever to grace the neighborhood.

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The figure in recline is a classic of fine art, but in this case it’s clear that the woman is posing of her own accord, rather than being staged by a male painter. One arm is raised casually, mid-gesture; a butterfly is thinking about landing on her hand. With crossed ankles and bare feet, her posture embodies the calm that settles in when chilling out in nature. The fact that her skin is painted jet black adds another layer to the meaning. 

“This image is a quiet kind of radical act,” Martinez, who is Black and Mexican, notes in her artist statement. “A woman at rest, whole, unhurried, at home in her own skin and in the world around her.” 

Martinez painted the work (curated by local art collective ARTXIV) during the World Cup, when it served as a restful counterpart to the frenzy of soccer events surrounding the stadium. But this weekend marks the painting’s official debut — with an unveiling on Saturday (July 25 at noon) followed by a print-signing event at the nearby Populus Hotel (July 25, 1-6 p.m.), should you want to bring a smaller version of this serene scene home.

The mural’s debut is one of the many events inside and surrounding the Seattle Art Fair, which returns for its 10th iteration tonight and runs through the weekend (July 23-26). A quick primer for those who haven’t yet attended: Founded by Microsoft’s Paul Allen in 2015, the Seattle Art Fair brings 90+ fine-art galleries together inside the wide expanse of the Lumen Field Event Center. 

Among the decked-out white cubicles will be longrunning local galleries such as Woodside/Braseth and Winston Wächter, as well as newer outlets including Basecamp Studios, Avery Barnes and Dirkse/Prim, plus international galleries from South Korea to Ukraine. 

Some of my favorite elements of the fair are the so-called “Public Projects,” which are the often large-scale installations peppering the aisles outside the booths. This year I’ll be looking for “Cloud Goddess,” a suspended kinetic sculpture by LA artist Trulee Hall, and “Between Tides,” an immersive wall hanging made of natural fibers by Port Townsend sculptor Tininha Silva (profiled in Season 1 of Art by Northwest!). The fair’s thematic focus this year is textile and fiber arts, so I’m also eager to see a collection of textile prints by Seattle artist María Zamora.

Also worth checking out is the “Theater Programming,” which sounds like performances but is actually a series of talks by artists, authors and curators. I’m especially intrigued by “Staying: Why Artists Choose to Build Lives Here (and What it Takes),” hosted by Artist Trust with moderator Negarra A. Kudumu and artists Amanda Manitach, Hyunjeong Lim, Timothy White Eagle and Mary Ann Peters.

Whatever you choose to see, wear something colorful and/or outright kooky — art fairs are an excellent chance for style maxxing — but remember that sensible shoes are a must. You’ll be stacking up that step count on the concrete floor. 

And you aren’t done walking yet! Just down the street and walkable from the official event, Railspur Studios (419 Occidental Ave. S; above the Lowlander Brew Pub) is putting on its own vertical version of an art fair. For the last several years, this has proved a hugely popular satellite venue, thanks to ARTXIV and arts event producers Forest for the Trees. 

This time you’ll have four floors of exhibits to check out (levels 2-5), including the new shows Growing Forward: Neddy at 30, a celebration of past award winners (on L2 through Aug. 6); and A Matter of Ghosts: Material Never Dies, produced in partnership with Recology, and featuring work made from cast-offs at the recycling facility by artists in residence, such as Maria Phillips, Philippe Hyojung Kim, Eirik Johnson and Margie Livingston (on L4 through Sept. 18). 

Also on view at Railspur are the ongoing shows Hello My Name Is, with work by Al-Baseer Holly, Barry Johnson, Devin Liston and many others (L3 through Aug. 21); and Grand Gesture, curated by Tommy Gregory with Arcade magazine and featuring Barbara Earl Thomas, Holly Ballard Martz and Soo Sunny Park (L5 through Aug. 3). 

Nearby in the neighborhood is the new group show Home of the Brave, at Europa Gallery (401 2nd Avenue S); while at The Jack (at the corner of Jackson Street and Alaskan Way), Seattle light artist Ben Zamora reconstructs his childhood home entirely from fluorescent light bars. Based on Zamora’s past work (minimalist yet haunting and literally lit), I’m looking forward to this new immersive piece, which is called IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE. 

Feeling overwhelmed with visual art yet? But wait, there’s more!

The newest name in Seattle’s art fair game is the Assembly Art Fair (July 23-26), taking place during the same time frame across town at West Canal Yards. 

A former fish processing facility along the industrial waterfront, the West Canal Yards complex sits just southeast of the Ballard Bridge. After a big makeover (courtesy of Seattle’s Graham Baba Architects), the space opened in March 2025 with an anchor tenant: downtown’s longstanding Traver Gallery. 

The reimagined space is beautiful — all wood and garage-door windows — but has yet to fill its capacity in terms of tenants. It will do so temporarily this weekend, as 17 galleries take over the building with an alternative vision for a Seattle art fair, one that’s less white cube, more natural light and big timber. 

In addition to Assembly Art Fair’s founding galleries (Traver and Greg Kucera), the event showcases the artists represented by local galleries including AMcE Creative Arts, J. Rinehart, studio e, Foster White, The Vestibule and others. Several prominent galleries in Portland, Dallas and LA are also in the mix, expanding the vision beyond Seattle borders, and there’s a fun pop-up shop right in the middle by the artful owners of downtown’s Orcas Paley. 

I attended the preview event last night — a buzzy if slightly humid affair with guests wandering through galleries and out to the back deck, which overlooks a narrow portion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. People I spoke with were excited to have a new alternative to the Seattle Art Fair, one that doesn’t charge participating galleries an arm and a leg for a booth. In fact there are no booths at all, which makes it feel like you just happened upon a cool building full of stellar galleries. 

Halfway through the evening I sensed a commotion at the center of the breezeway that runs down the middle of the building. I approached and saw a friend walking briskly away from the hubbub, cradling a clutch of small parcels wrapped in orange paper. As we passed, she telegraphed a message: “Dick’s. Near the jazz band. Hurry.” Sure enough, some genius had ordered a pallet of Dick’s cheeseburgers, and the art-goers set upon them like locusts (if locusts could hold champagne flutes in their forelegs). In minutes, some 300 burgers were gone, the impromptu table folded up and whisked away. 

It was a favorite Assembly Art Fair moment for me, amid the dreamy prospect of West Canal Yards being full of galleries year round. And here’s another: In a tiny room near The Vestibule’s location I discovered Seattle multimedia artist Theresa Wingert’s installation “Oracle Reservoir In Suspension (ORIS).”

I don’t want to spoil the surprise of it but I encourage you to seek it out. Wingert has created a hanging ovoid “oracle” using ceramic chunks and blown-glass blobs. The piece looks alien yet all-knowing, and when you place your head inside it, a poetic soundtrack offers just the answers you might need in the moment. It’s exactly the sort of strange and inspiring work that makes art fairs worth exploring.