In the Spring, the Whatcom Museum will present Not the Whole Picture, the first major museum exhibition for Bellingham-based artists Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour. The show will be a visual compilation of 35 years of photography, painting, and mixed media installation – work that often explores the arc of their collaborative partnership.
Not the Whole Picture takes its name from a new, large-scale photography installation that will anchor the exhibition in the Lightcatcher’s first-floor gallery: printed photographs are stitched together into enormous, radiating rings that evoke devotional mandalas. The photographs explore the universality of everyday moments – birthdays, travel, shared meals, pets, celebrations, mourning – and, in circular form, act as calendars imbued with time and memory.
Amundson and Gour, together with the Whatcom Museum, are inviting the public to be part of the art. Community members can both drop off 4” x 6” printed photographs to one of the many collection points around the city or upload digital images that show moments of everyday life in Bellingham. Donated photos will be printed and stitched together with photographs from Amundson and Gour’s personal collection to create a large-scale work that visitors will literally see themselves in when the exhibition opens in March 2025.
"Not the Whole Picture explores issues surrounding identity, place, community, and history. The opportunity to create a new piece incorporating images from our community is timely and exciting,” said Gour.
Amundson added, “We invite everyone to donate candid snapshots of anything and everything – from a walk on a Bellingham trail to kayaking at Lake Whatcom or a night out on the town. Anything goes! Personal photos often become universal symbols, and in this instance, we will literally tie them together to represent and embrace the community we are proud to be a part of.”
Amundson and Gour will need at least 300 photographs to create the large-scale piece, and all images and themes around life and living in Bellingham are welcome. Anyone who would like to participate in Not the Whole Picture is invited to upload digital images to the form on the Whatcom Museum website or donate 4” x 6” printed photographs through December 20. Drop boxes can be found at the following locations:
Please Note: Donated photographs will be hand-stitched into a permanent art piece, and printed photographs will not be returned to owners once donated. Not all images are guaranteed to be used, but the artists emphasize that all images will be treated and handled with care.
About the Artists
Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour are tenured faculty in the Department of Art & Art History at Western Washington University. Amundson received his MFA from Syracuse University, and Pierre Gour received his MFA from the University of New Mexico. They have exhibited their work nationally and internationally, including Seattle, Chicago, and South Korea, have completed several residency programs throughout North America and Europe, and have presented research at conferences around the United States. Using collage, photographic processes, and various mixed medias, Amundson and Gour explore the perceptions and politics surrounding the domestic sphere and identity. Through the lens of personal experience, they mine found photographs to suggest buried queer culture or examine the current moment, speaking metaphorically about social construction.
About the Whatcom Museum
The Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA, is an American Alliance of Museums-accredited museum and a Smithsonian Affiliate. Notable projects have included the 2019 retrospective exhibition WANTED: Ed Bereal for Disturbing the Peace, featured in The New York Times; the co-curated exhibition Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea, on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2023; and the newest exhibition, Under the Inspiration Tree: Celebrating the Work of Thomas Wood, on view through March 2, 2025.
The Whatcom Museum spans three buildings in downtown Bellingham: the Lightcatcher, Old City Hall, and Old Fire Station No. 1. For more information about exhibitions and admission, visit whatcommuseum.org.
