By Allyn Cantor

EDUARDO CALDERON: PORTRAITS OF 20 NORTHWEST ARTISTS Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Jan 12-Mar 13 Better-known as a street photographer, Eduardo Calderón candidly photographed 20 Northwest artists in their own domestic settings for this series. He also conducted interviews with each artist about their influences, backgrounds and connection to the Northwest as part of the project. Along with Calderón’s straightforward portraiture, the insightful artists’ narratives and inclusion of their own work in the exhibition reveals a telling cross-section of the regional contemporary art scene since roughly the 1960s.

CHICANITAS: SMALL PAINTINGS FRM THE CHEECH MARIN COLLECTION {SIZE DOESN'T MATTER} Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Jan 12-Mar 24 The actor Cheech Marin has developed a significant collection representing the Chicano art movement of the 1960s and 70s. Chicanitas focuses on his more recent endeavour of collecting works that resonate on a personal level – portraits, landscapes, abstract and photo-realistic paintings less than 16 inches in size. Marin’s perspective on small artwork is one of warmth and intimacy, as the accessible scale makes them easy to place in the home and experience on a daily basis.

PAT DE CARO: PARALLEL LANDSCAPE Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, Feb 1-Mar 3 Memories of childhood experiences are a central theme in Pat De Caro’s moody charcoal drawings. Beautifully rendered in an expressive style, the artist utilizes a child’s point of view and metaphorical settings to invoke emotions, and although often ambivalent, the honesty present in the innocence of youth can be considered universal. A lone girl set in a dark forest conjures mixed feelings of childhood fear and discovery that eventually shape one’s adult self.

JOANN VERBURG: MID-CAREER SURVEY G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, Feb 7-Mar 16 Images from 1991 to 2011 highlight recent work by the highly prolific, nationally recognized photographer JoAnn Verburg. During her career of over 30 years, Verburg has created still lifes, portraits, landscapes and cityscapes with an engaging vantage point and radiant colour palette that speaks about the perceptual experience. Having explored the many potentials of the photographic medium, her work reveals underlying themes of time, motion and an intimate sense of place. Minneapolis-based Verburg will also give a lecture at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle on Friday, March 8 at 7 pm.

PLASTICS UNWRAPPED Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, Dec 20, 2012- May 27, 2013 The invention of plastic has had a huge impact on human culture, changing social conditioning with a seeming dependency on the material. This insightful exhibit delves into how life’s needs were met before plastic, exposes environmental impacts and health risks through images from around the world, and shows promising new developments in science that could change the role of plastics for humanity. Through an array of photographs and educational displays, Plastics Unwrapped provokes the rethinking of our relationship to material.