Garric Simonsen

Garric Simonsen (b: 1975) is a visual artist and musician living in Spokane, WA. Simonsen's artwork is autobiographically informed. Simonsen received his Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College in June, 2005, and his Masters in Fine Arts from Washington State University in June, 2010.

Bellevue Arts Museum Northwest Biennial

In 2014 Simonsen displayed four dry-etched drawings in the Bellevue Arts Museum: BAM Biennial: Knock on Wood. These works responded to a large collection of his family's turn-of-the-century photographs of the Pacific Northwest's logging and railroad industries.A critical response to Simonsen's drawings were featured in the Seattle Weekly blog in a review of the Biennial by arts writer Brian Miller. The Biennial exhibition was curator by a panel of four jurors; Greg Bell, Senior Curator of Vulcan Inc., Seattle, WA; Stefano Catalani, Director of Art, Craft and Design, Bellevue Arts Museum; Albert Lecoff, Co-founder and Executive Director of The Center for Art and Wood, Philadelphia, PA; and Heather Sealy Lineberry, Senior Curator and Associate Director at Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe, AZ.

Magicality: Platform Gallery

In 2010 Simonsen's work was chosen for a small group exhibition at Platform Gallery in Seattle, WA, by artist William Powhida. A quote by the show organizers stated, “Through the use of associative thinking, non-scientific causal reasoning, symbolic expression, metaphor, metonym, and synchronicity the goal of artist and magician are the same seeking to affect change in the world. With this show we seek a synchronicity that will dissolve distinctions and help us to shed light on the dark and dark on the light. By looking at the production of art through much older means, we may discover new ways of experiencing and understanding its role.”The show was reviewed and published in Seattle's alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger by art critic Jen Graves.

Brucennial 2010: Miseducation

Curated by Vito Schnabel, the 2010 Brucennial was a large group in lower Manhattan under arts collective, The Bruce High Quality Foundation. Considered to be "the most important survey of contemporary art in the world ever, " the exhibition brought together 420 artists from 911 countries working in 666 discrete disciplines. A critical review of the exhibition appeared in a New York Times article by Holland Cotter. Among younger contemporaries, the exhibition included such names as; David Salle, Francesco Clemente, Ron Gorchov, George Condo, Donald Baechler, James Nares and Julian Schnabel.

Additional exhibitions and accomplishments

Simonsen's work has been exhibited and appreciated widely, most notable to this list are exhibitions at the Boston Center for the Arts, Seattle University and University of Wisconsin Madison. Projects have been funded and awarded grants from the Vermont Studio Center, Artist Trust andThe James Washington Foundation (Seattle, WA). Additional achievements include 2012 and 2014 nominations for Portland Art Museum’s Contemporary Northwest Art Awards.

In 2011 Simonsen began writing music with guitarist Jack Dunsmore. The two worked with a number of bass players up until Robert Heyenrath (The Fumes) joined (2012-13). In 2014 the band played as a two-piece act under the name Dark White Light with its original members. Dark White Light is now working with bass player Chuck Canfield. Dark White Light entered the studio in 2015 to record their first full-length self titled album. Recorded and produced at Rainbow Trout Studio in Spokane, WA, the completed album was release October 1, 2015 under the label Dark White Light. Dark White Light stretches both the language and structure of straight ahead grunge rock. Tracks from the bands newly completed first album ignite a compelling hard-rock assault of syncopated drums patterns, accented guitar riffs and blood spitting vocals.

Track listing