FIRST FRIDAY AT THE CHASE: WHAT IF YOU STAY

Electric Apocalypse, 2024

WHAT IF YOU STAY

The art of Tesla Kawakami

JULY’S FIRST FRIDAY OPENING RECEPTION: July 11 – 5:30 – 7 PM

(Enter City Hall through the sliding doors on N. Post St.. Chase Gallery is on the lower level) This exhibition runs for 2 months.

City Hall, lower level
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Dates: July 4 – August 29, 2025.
Open and free to the Public. Hours 9am – 5pm, M-F

The Chase Gallery at City Hall is proud to exhibit the artwork of Seattle-based artist, Tesla Kawakami (they/them) from July 4 through August 29, 2025. Meet-the-artist receptions with live music will be held as part of Spokane’s First Friday events on July 11 and August 1 from 5pm to 7:30pm.

About Tesla Kawakami:

Tesla is a contemporary mixed media artist based in Seattle, Washington, whose oil paintings explore themes of nostalgia, destruction, identity, and transformation. Drawing from their life in the Pacific Northwest, their work is deeply influenced by the region’s whimsical landscape, the ongoing impacts of climate change, and their experiences as a queer person.

A 2023 graduate of Western Washington University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Tesla was unanimously selected as the Outstanding Graduate for the College of Arts. Their distinctive visual language incorporates diverse techniques and visual references, creating vibrant works that resonate with emotional and environmental significance.

Tesla’s partner and cat are frequent subjects in their paintings, reflecting the intimate personal dimensions of their artistic practice. Their work has been featured in a duo exhibition at fruitsuper in Seattle (2024) and in group shows including Surge at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner (2023).

Artist’s Statement:

In a world where departure often seems the only rational response, What If You Stay poses a radical question: what happens when we choose to remain and bear witness?

This exhibition represents four years of artistic inquiry, tracing an evolution from broad documentation of climate devastation to an intimate exploration of the entanglement between queer identity and our endangered natural world.

My work employs contrasting techniques—photo transfers that preserve memory, masking that conceals and reveals, reductive scratching that simulates erosion—all serving as metaphors for our complex relationship with environmental change. The signature neon acrylic underpaintings create a visual vibration beneath direct oil applications, producing landscapes that pulse with an unsettling vitality.

Throughout my lifetime, I have witnessed the normalization of ecological catastrophe. Floods, wildfires, and extreme weather events have intensified in both frequency and severity, yet our collective response has calcified into a numbing apathy. This exhibition confronts our emotional paralysis by transforming overwhelming climate data into scenes of unexpected aliveness.

The intersection of queerness and ecological consciousness forms the heart of this collection. Both experiences involve navigating spaces of marginality and discovering resilience in inhospitable conditions. Both demand we reimagine relationships with bodies—our own and the Earth’s.

What If You Stay is not merely documentation of loss, but a vibrant testament to persistence. These works invite viewers to consider what remains possible when we refuse the impulse to look away, when we commit to seeing clearly the beauty still unfolding in damaged places.

Congratulations to Sacajawea Middle School Student Izzy Parker!

Izzy won the Spokane Arts and City of Spokane’s Wastewater Management Department’s student art contest. Her design will be cast in iron and placed on the streets of Spokane!

At an all-school assembly this morning, Sacajawea Middle School 6th grader Izzy Parker was recognized as the winner of the City of Spokane Wastewater Department and Spokane Arts’ 2025 Student-Designed Wastewater Access Cover Art Contest!
This contest occurs every five years in Spokane as the city replaces approximately 100 wastewater access covers, also known as manhole covers. For decades and at no extra cost, the City of Spokane has added the winning student-designed artwork to these manholes to add creativity to our city streets.
The design prompt was to be reflective of the ecology, water, nature, creatures or landscape of the Inland Northwest. Izzy’s whimsical design featuring a kayaker on the Spokane River, lots of trees, and Spokane’s unofficial mascot, the marmot, stood out the panel of judges as the top entry out of hundreds of submissions.
Her family also attended the surprise reveal where Izzy received a $100 prize and goody bag from Spokane Stormwater. Congrats, Izzy!

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE 2025 ARTS AWARDS!

Spokane Arts is excited to host the 47th Annual Arts Awards—a celebration of the arts community in Spokane! Join us on Saturday, September 13, 2025 at the beautiful Myrtle Woldson Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Gonzaga University for live music, performances, poetry, and the presentation of the Arts Awards! This year’s theme is “HOMECOMMING!” Whether you have fond memories of your own high school homecoming, skipped that lame event to do “other things,” or never had the opportunity, this event is sure to bring out everyone from cheerleaders to goths, band geeks to burnouts, and everything in between! Attendees are encouraged to dress in whatever Homecoming means to them for fun and prizes!

The Arts Awards recognize the accomplishments of creatives, arts and cultural organizations, and local individuals committed to enriching our community through the arts. Nominees are celebrated in six categories that reflect the values of Spokane Arts: Leadership, Collaboration, Imagination, Inclusion, Youth Arts Leadership, and Arts Advocacy. In each category, nominated artists, volunteers, neighborhoods, educators, organizations, community leaders, or donors are selected by a panel of Arts Commissioners and community arts representatives from the pool of community-nominated candidates. Emerging or established, young or old, on the edge or in the center – Spokane Arts strives to celebrate and recognize the wealth of participation in Spokane’s creative ecosystem.

Questions about the Arts Awards event? Email devonte@spokanearts.org 
2025 Arts Awards artwork by Spokane artist Kate Reed.

NOMINATE SOMEONE TODAY!

Events!

Use our events calendar to discover visual, stage, music, dance, cultural and other arts events to enjoy. Artists, organizations, and locations who hosts events and provide opportunities, are also encouraged to submit events.

 

SUBMIT AN EVENT

 

FIND YOUR EVENT

SA Official
Opportunity
Add yourself to the Artist Roster!
The Spokane Arts artist roster is a searchable tool designed to showcase local creatives and connect them with community members seeking artists and makers. People can browse the entire roster to discover a new favorite artist or filter by the type of work they’re seeking. Artists can share samples of their work, a description of what drives them to create and links to check out their website or social media. If you're an artist in the Spokane area, you can submit your information to be included on the roster! This is a free resource designed to support the local creative community. Submit your information here to be added to the roster. Please note: the artist roster is a free resource directory to find artists. Any local artist can add their information. The artists on the roster are not endorsed or represented by Spokane Arts.