SEATTLE, WA.- Vortexhibition Polyphonica presents a new and dynamic approach to exhibiting museum collections and kicked off the Henry’s year-long initiative to explore and display the collection in its breadth and depth. Instead of a fixed presentation of works relating to history, style, or subject matter, this exhibition experiments with a fluid structure. The show is designed to highlight a fascinating array of interconnections across the spectrum of the Henry’s holdings. Though the Henry is recognized as the region’s preeminent contemporary art museum, its holdings include 19th-century paintings, contemporary art and photography, textiles and costumes, ceramics, and many other art objects that are little known. Vortexhibition Polyphonica delights and stimulates the audience with the wealth of unexpected associations that can be made in this wonderful, idiosyncratic resource.

Working with this innovative concept, Henry curators selected distinctive objects to act as conceptual “hubs.” These anchoring works establish topics around which a constellation of other objects orbit. Over the course of the extended exhibition run, the curatorial team will work with a call-and-response tactic to create new hubs with new supporting pieces. These groups will be integrated into the exhibition gradually: as some objects exit others will enter to reconfigure and re-contextualize the exhibition. The results promise to be visually vibrant and conceptually invigorating.

The initial selections was made by Henry Associate Curator Sara Krajewski and includes a comprehensive range of works from the contemporary — EV Day’s Cherry Bomb Vortex and Takashi Murakami’s Mr Dob Ussisshi — to design objects and funk ceramics like Clayton Bailey’s Sasquatch skeleton. Other works include paintings, posters, and prints as well as costumes, shoes, and textiles, all revolving around provocative topics. In early 2010, the exhibition will be reshuffled by Henry Chief Curator Elizabeth Brown.

Featured artists: Guy Irving Anderson, Dieter Appelt, Clayton George Bailey, John Baldessari, Gilles Barbier, Herbert Bayer, Vanessa Beecroft, Joseph Beuys, Nancy Burson, John Cage, Harry Callahan, Robert H. Colescott, Clair Colquitt, Imogen Cunningham, Sean Dack, EV Day, Marcel Dzama, Todd Eberle, Eugene Harold Edgerton, Janieta Eyre, Tony Feher, Robert Samuel Fried, Nan Goldin, Morris Graves, Ann Hamilton, Matthew Higgs, Gary Hill, Stefan Hirsig, William Hogarth, Christian Holstad, Jenny Holzer, Helmi Dagmar Juvonen, Gyorgy Kepes, André Kertész, Paul Kos, Howard William Kottler, Alix Lambert, Annette Lemiuex, Erik Levine, Axel Lieber, Robert Longo, Dan McCarthy, Dave Muller, Takashi Murakami, Trevor Paglen, Florence Pierce, Arnulf Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Allen Ruppersberg, Lucas Samaras, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Jeffrey Simmons, Sandy Skoglund, Jaune Quick to See Smith, Jay Steensma, Barbara Takenaga, Mark Tobey, James Turrell, Edward Weston, Clarence H. White, David Wojnarowicz