• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism Logo

Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism

Travel, Hotel and Visitor Information

Bellingham Outdoors Animated Logo
  • Home
  • Places to Stay
    • Hotels / Resorts
    • Vacation Rentals / Bed & Breakfasts
    • Camping / RV Parks
    • Hotel Packages / Special Rates
    • Park n’ Fly Hotel Packages
  • Places to Eat
    • Restaurants
    • Craft Breweries
    • Wine, Spirits & Wineries
    • Coffee Shops & Sweets
  • Things to Do
    • Events Calendar
    • Annual Events
    • Agricultural
    • Attractions
    • Bicycling
    • Bird Watching
    • Cannabis
    • Casinos
    • Fishing
    • Golfing
    • Hiking
    • Itineraries
    • Museums & Galleries
    • Parks & Playgrounds
    • Running
    • Scenic Drives
    • Shopping
    • Snowsports
    • Spas & Health
    • Theaters & Music
    • Tours
    • Water Adventures
    • Summer Activities
    • Fall Activities
    • Winter Activities
    • Spring Activities
    • Whatcom Arts Project
  • Outdoors
    • Bicycling
    • Bird Watching
    • Fishing
    • Golfing
    • Hiking
    • Parks & Playgrounds
    • Running
    • Scenic Drives
    • Snowsports
    • Water Adventures
  • Getting Here
    • Maps
    • Ground Transport
    • Air Transport
    • Water Transport
    • US/Canada Border
  • Blogs
  • Communities
    • Bellingham
    • Birch Bay
    • Blaine
    • Downtown Bellingham
    • Fairhaven Historic District
    • Ferndale
    • Lummi Island
    • Lynden
    • Mt. Baker
    • North Cascades
    • Point Roberts
    • Sumas
  • Media
    • Media Request Form
    • Articles & Coverage
    • Press Releases
    • Photo Contest
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Weather
    • Request Information
    • Jobs & Volunteer
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
    • Industry Resources
    • Membership
    • Member Directory
    • Services
      • Event Planning
      • Relocation
      • Business
      • Education
      • Financial
      • Medical
      • Out of Area
Home / Press Releases / Sarah Sze’s ‘Split Rock (Northwest)’ to be Newest Installation in WWU’s Renowned Outdoor Sculpture Collection
For Immediate Release:

March 1, 2019

Sarah Sze’s ‘Split Rock (Northwest)’ to be Newest Installation in WWU’s Renowned Outdoor Sculpture Collection

New York City artist Sarah Sze will be on the campus of Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA on May 8 to dedicate her newest work, “Split Rock (Northwest),” as the piece joins the University’s acclaimed Outdoor Sculpture Collection, including important works from such artists as Richard Serra, Isamu Noguchi, Anthony Caro, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Beverly Pepper, Mark di Suvero and Do-ho Suh.

“We are incredibly proud that Sarah’s piece will become part of Western’s Outdoor Sculpture Collection and join so many other magnificent examples of public art,” said Hafthor Yngvason, the director of the Western Gallery and the Outdoor Sculpture Collection. “It will be in fine company.”

Split Rock (Northwest) will be installed on the lawn in front of Old Main, Western’s oldest building, and will feature a single boulder, split in half. One half will remain upright, while the other will lie on its back, facing the sky, like two halves of an opened geode. In the interior of both halves, viewers will discover a photographic image of the sky at sunset, constructed from fragments of color incised into the cut face of the stone. The same image will be mirrored in the other half, as if the boulder’s core held the fixed image of the sky.

Sze was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969 and presently lives and works in New York City, where she is a professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.

Sze represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2013, and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003. She has exhibited in museums worldwide, and her works are held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Fondation Cartier, Paris; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles. Sze’s work has been featured in The Whitney Biennial (2000), the Carnegie International (1999) and several international biennials, including Berlin (1998), Guangzhou (2015), Liverpool (2008), Lyon (2009), São Paulo (2002), and Venice (1999, 2013, and 2015). Sze has also created public works for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the High Line in New York.

Split Rock (Northwest) comes to the WWU campus through funding from the Washington State Arts Commission’s Art in Public places program (AIPP). The Washington State Legislature established the AIPP program in 1974 to acquire artwork for K-12 public schools, colleges, universities, and state agencies, funded by ½ of 1 percent of the state’s portion of construction costs – in this case, of the recent renovation of Western’s Carver Facility. Today, the State Art Collection includes more than 4,700 artworks that are sited where people study, work, and live.

Share:

Filed Under: Press Releases Tagged With: art at western washington university, Bellingham outdoor sculptures

Footer

Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism
Visitor Center Located at I-5 Exit 253
904 Potter Street, Bellingham, WA 98229

Hours: Due to COVID-19, the Visitor Center is open limited hours: Friday, Saturday & Sunday 10am-3pm. Masks required.

Phone: 360-671-3990
Email: tourism@bellingham.org

Join

Sign up to receive Bellingham Whatcom County events & information!

Share

site by highwaters.net