ELVISTRAVAGANZA!

Years ago at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, there was an art installation photo opportunity setting by Scott Aho in the courtyard of the Northwest Rooms. Scott was taking Polaroids of festival attendees in front of his installation, where he had set up a 2D cardboard Elvis cutout, with a real guitar, mannequin arm and necklace. He also had a cutout replica of the Science Center arches behind Elvis. In the background, looking south is the real Space Needle over the roof of the Colosseum, now called the Key Arena.

Marlow & Jo decided they had to bring Elvis back to Bumbershoot this year

for the biggest dang ELVISTRAVAGANZA celebration ever!

• Marlow and Jo David actually met at Bumbershoot

on Labor Day many years ago...

Friday

Markku Laakso

Markku Laakso & Annika Dahlsten

Temptation of the North_10_2009

7.8"w x 5.8"h

$200

Finnish artist Markku Laakso is from the village of Koppelo in the Lapland town of Inari. Laakso’s paintings depict both clothed and nude characters and images of Elvis. The figures in traditional Lappish dress, both boys and girls, are a reference to the artist’s northern heritage, while the ambiguous Elvis appears as the subject of adoration and critical examination at the same time.

Markku Laakso

Guitar by the Fire

2009

oil on canvas

24x32.5cm - 12.8"w x 9.5"h

$500.

Markku has sent us a suite of his work for this exhibit, six paintings - oil on canvas, twelve photographs, and this gigantic 110"w x 117"h photographic reproduction of his painting below, "Sammon puolustus", or in English, "The Defense of the Sampo". It was printed for an exhibition at Helsinki Art Museum, and it travelled together with the exhibition to Japan. It has also been on display at the Finnish Cultural Center in Washington DC. The painting refers to the Finnish Golden Age masterpiece by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and the theme is from the national epic Kalevala. Here is information about the original 1896 Finnish masterpiece, "Sammon puolustus" which Markku's painting references.

Markku Laakso

Reproduction of "Defense of the Sampo" (1999)

photographic print on canvas

110"w x 117"h

Not for sale

Markku Laakso

Elvis Rows

2012

oil on canvas

24x32.5cm - 12.8"w x 9.5"h

$500.

Markku Laakso & Annika Dahlsten

Temptation of the North_3_2009

7.8"w x 5.8"h

$200

We're so pleased to have this artist from Finland in our exhibition. It's interesting how we first learned of Markku Laakso's artwork. I had made an online friend on the Flickr photo posting site. He's a German artist, Heiko Müller. When he had an art show of his work in San Francisco, and was then going to pass through Seattle to see some friends, he contacted me to ask if I could join them for dinner. It turns out that I also knew these same artists also, so I invited everyone over to our home. Here we are on 09/29/09 in our Dead Elvis Lounge with (left to right) Jacob McMurray, Jacob Covey, Jo David, Grady West, Heiko Müller, Marlow Harris, Robert Hardgrave, and Chris Crites.

Grady is holding up one of Heiko's new books, and Heiko is holding a jug of sake that artist Mark Ryden left in my fridge on a visit just previous to this.

When Heiko and Markku had a show together in Germany, Heiko told Markku about our Dead Elvis Lounge and Elvis collections. Markku then kinkdy sent us a book of his artwork which prominently features Elvis as a main character. We thought it was a longshot, but went ahead and contacted Markku to see if he might be interested in sending us something for the show. He and Annika are very excited to be a part of Elvistravaganza!