Material Tension, a gallery by Henry Jackson-Spieker, will be on display at the Russell Day Gallery from Sept. 23 – Oct. 31. Jackson-Spieker connects tension, balance and symmetry by working with materials including glass, bronze, steel and wood. 

According to the new Russell Day Gallery director Miles Labitzke, former art and printmaking instructor at Everett Community College, Jackson-Spieker wanted to break away from the traditional passive art gallery experience by creating art with the use of reflective surfaces and abstract installations to allow the viewer to interact with the actual pieces. The display includes two pieces that were made specifically with this concept in mind for the Material Tension exhibit.

Henry Jackson-Spieker is a Seattle based multidisciplinary artist with a Bachelors of Arts from Western Washington University. His work includes small sculptures and site specific installations, as well as large-scale public works at Seattle Center and Cary Hill Sculpture Park in New York. 

The artist is also the recipient of several prestigious grants for his art including one from the Vermont Studio Center which is the largest international artists’ and writers’ residency program, as well as from the New Foundation Seattle, a philanthropic and cultural organization.

Jackson-Spieker has also been the Chihuly Garden and Glass Scholarship recipient, a $10,000 scholarship that is used for the furthering of education of the medium of glass in art through Pilchuck Glass School or Pratt Fine Arts Center, two leading glass art organizations in the U.S.

“I explore the constant push and pull of opposing forces that causes an unstable existence but ultimately gives way to a balanced unified duality. Combining different mediums creates a source of tension and conflict resulting in an unstable existence,” writes Jackson-Spieker in a statement regarding his work on his website.