Skip to main content

Pacific Species

Dec 22 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Biodiversity inspires this selection of works, encouraging us to take a break from looking at one another and instead carefully watch the other species in our midst. You’ll find ultra-tiny octopuses from Japan, an elegant local heron who sits on high alert, and a frog and whale in glass. Fish swim into view, from carps with twisting tails to a shark with a torpedo-like body. Some creatures take on mythic features, as seen in a sea serpent and a possible pig vertebrae/leaf spirit. Finally, a sawfish emerges with a signature nose that has almost led to the species’s extinction. While we savor our time watching such companions, we also know that many are endangered by our notorious arrogance and we must pay more attention to their needs.

Model of a Carp, Sea Bass, Blowfish, Shrimp and Octopus, ca. 1820, Hasegawa Ikko, Japanese, ivory with inlaid decoration and color, 15/16 x 2 1/4 x 1 5/16 in., Gift of the Robert B. and Honey Dootson Collection, 91.167.

Related events

Nothing to see here, check back soon!

See what’s on at SAM


What’s on at Seattle Art Museum

Following Space: Thaddeus Mosley & Alexander Calder

Nov 20 2024–Jun 1 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Selections from the Shirley Family Calder Collection

Nov 20 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams

Oct 17 2024–Jan 19 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Bethany Collins: At Sea

Nov 14 2024–May 4 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller

Jun 28 2024–Jan 5 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Art and Commerce

Jul 27 2024–Jan 12 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Diego Cibelli: Fiori dei Miei Habiti / La Montagne Enchantée

May 31 2024–May 10 2026

Seattle Art Museum

Lessons from the Institute of Empathy

Mar 31 2018–Oct 5 2025

Seattle Art Museum

American Art: The Stories We Carry

Oct 20 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Yirrkala: Art from Australia’s Top End

May 10 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Impressionisms: The Global Nineteenth Century

Mar 27 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Chronicles of a Global East

Oct 20 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

SAM on Paper: Rembrandt’s Etchings

Mar 27 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Conscious Constructions

Apr 29 2011–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Art and Life Along the Northwest Coast

Nov 26 2014–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Deities & Demons: Supernatural In Japanese Art

Oct 20 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Cosmic Beings in Mesoamerican and Andean Art

Nov 10 2018–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Porcelain Room

May 5 2007–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

John Grade: Middle Fork

Feb 10 2017–Feb 2 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Only Connect: The Art of Devotion

Apr 29 2011–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei

Mar 12–Sep 7 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Tariqa Waters: Venus is Missing

May 7 2025–Jan 5 2026

Seattle Art Museum

Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism

Oct 23 2025–Jan 18 2026

Seattle Art Museum

Samantha Yun Wall: 2024 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Opening Spring 2026

Seattle Art Museum