ArtSEA: The intricacy of intimacy, as seen on Seattle stages

The tragedy, atrocity, peculiarity and humor in human drama is also on view in current visual art shows.

Start at Winston Wächter, where Seattle artist Barry Johnson’s new show Never Leave Without Saying Goodbye (through April 13) portrays the power of human connection by way of solitary introspection. Noting that last year he suffered the loss of “several family members to drugs and addiction,” Johnson shares autobiographical paintings that radiate with absence. No matter the landscape — in the woods, on a street, at the beach — we see the artist cloaked in grief for his missing loved ones. 

At Greg Kucera Gallery in Pioneer Square, legendary Seattle artist Roger Shimomura shares More Little White Lies (through March 30), a series of small-scale works that reflect his signature approach: calling out racism by way of Pop Art-inflected paintings with comic-book verve.

Shimomura’s best trick is blending real terrors — primarily Japanese American incarceration camps, in which he was detained as a child — with irony and humor. Look for a mix of anime characters, geisha figures, Yoko Ono, Superman, the artist in a surgical mask, and a whole bunch of rice cookers.

Meanwhile at the Henry Art Gallery, Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES continues (through Aug. 4). And among the expansive exhibit of some 90 works by the New York-based artist is a whole room of appalling advertisements.

For the series Unbranded: A Century of White Women (one of several series in the show), Thomas selected and enlarged real print ads from the past and removed all of the text and branding. What’s left is a searing look at how women have been portrayed in advertising for decades — pulled by the hair, grinning with a black eye, enchained, and of course in all manner of highly sexualized poses. (An enlightening field trip for Women’s History Month.)

As Thomas pointed out during the preview, when originally published, these ads were considered par for the course — so will our future selves be appalled by branding we are blithely ingesting right now? See also: Thomas’ series Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America, which offers a similar critique of print ads featuring African Americans, with notable differences.