BELLINGHAM, WA.- The Whatcom Museum announces the latest in a series of high-profile openings in 2025 with Bellingham artists Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour’s new exhibition, Not the Whole Picture. Partners in art and in life, Amundson and Gour’s work explores the perceptions and politics surrounding immigration, concepts of home, and queer identity. The exhibition opened March 22 and runs through July 27, 2025.
The comprehensive museum exhibition surveys both collaboratively produced works as well as individual artistic explorations in sculpture, collage, and painting. Many of the works also draw from the artists’ extensive photographic archive: in addition to exploring their own family photo albums, they have been intently collecting vintage photographs from thrift stores, both here and abroad, for decades. Most of the images they have gravitated to have been faces of men, unknown to them, from antique Victorian studio portraits to midcentury Kodachromes.
“Vintage photographs are a primary raw material for Amundson and Gour. Using craft and collage processes, they recontextualize these images, embedding new narratives into them to comment on gay invisibility and reveal hidden histories. While their work has received broad audience and critical acclaim for the way the artists transform materials, it nevertheless stands in defiance of society’s erasure of queer culture,” said Whatcom Museum Chief Curator Amy Chaloupka.
Amundson and Gour began their collaborative art careers in the mid-’80s, at a time when the AIDS epidemic was at its peak and queer culture was suppressed and stigmatized. As partners in a committed relationship for decades, they were unable to claim the same legal rights afforded to heterosexuals, an obstacle made more complex once their union was legally recognized in Canada but not in the United States, where they live. Photo-documentation became a way for them to process the world around them.
Anchoring the exhibition is an ambitious photography installation called Not the Whole Picture, which gives the exhibition its name. Culled from 40 years of partnership, images reflect their home life, their relationships, their past, and their personal collections.
The installation presents groupings of more than a dozen large-scale, mandala-like circular forms, ranging in size from 6 to 15 feet in diameter. With radiating rings of hand-stitched 4 x 6-inch photographs, the circular shapes explore the universality of everyday snapshots of events large and small—from birthdays to travels, pets loved and lost, sunsets and celebrations to the intimate moments of a couple’s life together. The photographic rings explore the rituals of everyday life.
Inviting members of the community into their process, the artists asked for donated images to create a new piece for Not the Whole Picture. Amundson and Gour received more than 800 photographs, which they have turned into a stunning reflection of the many faces and places of Bellingham. This work will become part of the museum’s permanent collection after the run of the exhibition.
As Professors of Art at Western Washington University, Amundson and Gour prioritized student involvement in both the exhibition and the design and production of the catalogue, echoing the Whatcom Museum’s commitment to collaboration with students, educators, and artists. Professor Evan Baden and lead designer Abigail Piña of COMPOSIT Press, a student-staffed printing press and bindery at Oregon State University, oversaw the process of hand-assembling the limited-edition exhibition catalogue, which includes an essay by cultural critic and author Mark Dery. Exhibition catalogues will be available for purchase at the Whatcom Museum Store.
“After exhibiting our work in venues around the world, it is rewarding to show at our own Whatcom Museum in Bellingham,” said Garth Amundson. “It’s an honor to collaborate with a space that celebrates creativity, values diversity, and fosters meaningful connections. After living here for nearly 25 years, this exhibition brings our art closer to our home and community.”
