David Mollari Sederberg- 45-Year Art Retrospective
Olympia Art Walk, October 2025
Olympia Ballroom, 116 Legion Way, Olympia, WA 98501
October 3, 2025, 5pm-10pm
October 4, 2025, 12pm-6pm
A chronological exhibition of work spanning from 1981 to the present, arranged into three main periods manifested in various media assembled by the artist: painting, sculpture, lighted installations, and video – in original and unusual compositions. The pieces share the dynamic of mobility, either in fact or image, and many pay homage to other artists in various media of the day. Environmental and social concerns make up much of the subject matter, global and intensely local.
The show will include work with collaborative artists including Natalie Coblentz (sculpture), Andrew Ebright (video), Suza Manges (Video/Animation) and others of a broad range of background, inspiration, and demographics (including age).
The gallery presentation is microcosm of one version of the artist’s vision of a dedicated art museum for Olympia – the Olympia Art Museum (OAM), and envisions collaboration with others who value art’s place in society like the Thurston County Fine Art Museum and Olympia Arts and Heritage Alliance (Olympia AHA).
My body of work is divided into three different eras: HoodArt, largely produced from 1979 – 2006; Painted Sculpture, 1997-2006; and Installations, 2020-2025. The latter pause was due to my vocational work and to raising a daughter. I couldn’t found much time to create art for art’s sake until COVID brought my job to an abrupt halt (and my daughter grew up). I had all the time in the world again.
HoodArt
HoodArt is the painting of an automobile hood for sole of intention for it to be hung on a wall, never again on a car.
Premonitory Metamorphosis
(1981)
Change springing from fear of the future. As an environmentalist, I created a vision of a butterfly
coming out of a split Earth, witnessing a backdrop of destruction, and escaping via vision and metamorphosis.
Acrylic lacquer on steel car hood
Meet Me in Seattle at the Fair
(1982)
This piece was named after a song I had as a kid on a 45 RPM by Joy and The Boys. A happy song about the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair; it described having a world by the string. We had elected JFK,
the economy was on an upswing, an average white male boomer’s single income could easily sustain a middle-class family. and the space race with the Soviet Union was in full swing with John Glenn becoming the 1st American astronaut to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962. It seemed like the best of times. I wanted to paint what could be the worst of times. While the scientific consensus at the time was the Earth was going to heat up due to increased carbon in the air, I chose to paint what it might be like if we went back into an ice age. (Either way, it wouldn’t be fair time.)
Acrylic lacquer on steel car hood
Starry Knight
(2002)
This is my first HoodArt painting after a 20-year break. I enjoy parodies and twisting perceptions. This particular hood is off a Ford minivan, making this a genuine Van-Go.
Sleeping Greener
(2006)
A regional twist on Henri Rousseau’s famous painting Sleeping Gypsy. Our state liberal (very) arts college in Olympia, The Evergreen State College, has a geoduck as its mascot. Rousseau was mocked for placing a lion in the desert. In my parody/homage, I decided to just go for it.
Acrylic Urethane on fiberglass car hood
Painted Sculpture
Migrations
(2001)
A repeating theme in my art is the use of asymmetric waves. I love the process of making random waves balance out, (possibly related to my life as an audio engineer). Nature took it to a whole new level with zebras.
Steel, polymeric resin, acrylic urethane, oak
Queen Tut
(2005)
I like to play the “What if” game. In this case, what if King Tut was gay? A rainbow on the chest and an upside, pink triangle on their forehead and lots of glam and gold.
Steel, polymeric resin, acrylic urethane, variegated & 24 karat gold leaf
Moodusa
(2005)
She speaks for herself. The snakes are fairly accurate reproductions balancing random, asymmetric waves. Each snake took over eight hours to paint.
Steel, polymeric resin, acrylic urethane
George's Other Hand (2006)
In 1967, renowned photographer Richard Avedon was selected to do a photo shoot of the Beatles for Look magazine, timed to coincide with the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the band’s embrace of psychedelic sounds and aesthetics. With that in mind, Avedon employed a solarization technique, day-glow colors and symbolic imagery for the portraits, reflecting the band’s new direction. John Lennon had kaleidoscope eyes (From “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”). Paul McCartney had a flower theme, Ringo Starr had the peace dove, and George Harrison (the quiet Beatle) had a henna lotus theme, as he had become deeply influenced by Buddhism and Eastern mysticism. In Buddhism, the lotus represents purity and spiritual awakening and enlightenment. The Buddha eye on his right hand symbolizes profound spiritual insight, enabling enlightened perception of reality and truth. We all have a hand of spirit and aspiration as our goal, but we also have a hand that holds us back in the corporeal world. George Harrison died of lung cancer at age 58. This sculpture is his other hand. The loti is in turmoil. Is the eye half open or closed? The fingers are positioned to hold the cigarettes that killed him.
Steel, polymeric resin, acrylic urethane, variegated & 24 karat gold leaf
Installations
Glowhenge
(2020 – 2021)
The Covid winters were particularly dark and bleak. The necessary isolation and reality of sickness and death put a hard pause on creativity and public access to art.
Beginning in the winter of 2020, I and some artist friends created a series of painted monoliths lit by blacklights that gave the pieces an arresting glow and sense of dimension. The first installation was on the hill on the north side of Capital Lake, drawing many people out of the darkness to see. I heard many expressions of joy and relief at the opportunity to gather safely outside to share an art experience after prolonged isolation.
Fluorescent paint on wood with LED black lighting
Multiple guest artists
Winterlux
(2021)
Inspire
(2022)
In 2021, when community leaders and artists launched a campaign to raise the sales tax by 1% to create funding for the arts, I went to a meeting and shared an idea (but there was no funding). So, I built a movable letter sculpture spelling out “Inspire Oly!” and invited artists and others associated with arts and culture organizations that could potentially benefit from such a tax to come into my shop and paint the letters to express their stories. In multiple venues during the winter of 2021 and spring of 2022, the letters helped promote the tax. Success was achieved on April 25, 2022, when Olympians overwhelmingly voted YES!
Precarious Stacks (2022-2024)
Another installation originally born out of COVID. An early version was sponsored by the Olympia Downtown Alliance (thank you!) and installed at a LOVE OLY event.
The isolation and well-merited fear of the early pandemic conversely highlighted the ephemeral nature of all that we hold most dear – beauty, health, democracy, art – the best of life. It’s a balancing act to live fully with the caution owed to real threats. The challenge is to affirmatively create and appreciate each other with collaboration, and joy. Nothing lasts forever – limitation is value.
This version features guest artist Natalie Coblentz and my daughter Whitney Sederberg.