“The condition of this region’s landscape is experiencing a period of accelerated change. From a climactic ecosystem to a harvested territory, we are bearing witness to an unprecedented transition.” 
-Aaron Loveitt

This exhibition of Aaron Loveitt’s work takes the visitor through past, present and future tense to explore the condition of this region’s environment through the installation of three large scale sculptures: Revere, Reap and Recover. Succession presents a succinct and powerful narrative of our interconnected relationship within the Northwest landscape.

Working with industrial materials and processes that exemplify the organic malleability of steel, aluminum and glass, this body of work elicits a sense of duality as Loveitt searches for a balance somewhere between growth and repose, honoring and mourning, celebration and warning. Through an abstraction of form as well as philosophy to a point of seeming neutrality, this exhibition offers the viewer a unique perspective of this place to contemplate.

“Presented here is a translation from my explorations into the wild reaches of this place. From the twisted ancient tree that once was, down a mountain watershed stilled by today’s dams, and into the reclamation of tomorrow’s landscape.”

Succession is Aaron Loveitt’s first solo museum exhibition. Loveitt’s investigation of the natural environment echoes the Museum of Northwest Art’s enthusiasm for fostering dialogue between ecology and the arts and honoring the deep tradition of artists inspired by the distinctive ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest.  The Museum of Northwest Art is thrilled to host Succession in the Benaroya Glass Gallery, and looks forward to opening the space to further artists as a venue for immersive installation work and comprehensive aesthetic experiences that move past a single work of art, towards an encounter with a total creative environment. 

Aaron Loveitt is an artist and blacksmith based in Bow, Washington, known for his site-specific metalwork and sculpture inspired by the PNW landscape. His studio, located on a forested mountainside above Samish Bay, has also become a venue for collaborative community events that help celebrate the legacy of artistic talent in the Skagit Valley. Born in Vermont, Loveitt had an early love for the natural world before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Alfred University in New York and taking root in the Pacific Northwest.