Sculptor and Gage art instructor Michael Magrath placed his three life-size sculptures of Iraqi war victims made of ordinary table salt in Occidental Park on Sept. 11. A captive boy, a weeping man, and a mourning father will remain on view, exposed to the public and to the elements, until they dissolve like so many fleeting news headlines.

An auction of paintings, sculptures, glass, and other work (viewable online) by over 160 artists will benefit the Seattle Men's and Women's choruses.

Large-scale sculpture by New Yorker Will Ryman in "Private Moments." Also: Matthew Offenbacher's finely detailed owl paintings in "God, Sex, the Great Outdoors."

"The Other Side of the Grassy Knoll" features mixed-media sculptures that explore nature from an urbanite angle, by Jessica Balsam, Jessyca Burke, Carmen Lozar, and Tammie Rubin, who also curates.

Various artists explore the properties of glass through site-specific installations in "Transparently Built." Also: "Kickin' It with Joyce J. Scott" is a 30-year retrospective of the multifaceted artist's lively work in sculpture, textiles, and performance. Also: "Fresh! Contemporary Takes on Nature and Allegory" juxtaposes contemporary glass art with other media.

"Tiki Art Now! Vol. 3" features art with a pseudo-Polynesian theme by over a dozen artists from the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Germany. Curated by Otto Von Stroheim of Tiki News magazine (who knew?).

In "Symphonic Poem: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson," the African-American artist uses an array of mediums to recount narratives in a folk art style. "The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas" offers Daumier's wry caricatures, Ingres' delicate pencil portraits, and Degas' pastel dancers, among other 19th-century French drawings and watercolors from the vast collections of the Baltimore and Walters art museums. This is the only West Coast stop. Also: "Between Clouds of Memory: The Ceramic Art of Akio Takamori."

Western Bridge The fall show plays with shadow and light, in work by Jason Dodge (Into Black, photo paper exposed to the sun on the vernal equinox at various places across the globe), Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch (The Light at Lascaux, a large fluorescent light installation), Neil Goldberg (Three or Four Steps Through a Shadow, a video installation), Hadley+ Maxwell, Euan Macdonald, Paul Morrison, Doug Aitken, Linda Connor, Morris Graves, Sterling Ruby, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Claude Zervas.

Henry Art Gallery In "Threshold: Byron Kim 1990-2004," the Asian-American artist makes both striking and subtle observations about racial identification and the suppleness of memory in his misleadingly simple monochromatic panels. Highlights include the 275-paneled Synecdoche which got Kim noticed at the 1993 Whitney Biennial, and Emmett at Twelve Months, an abstract yet sweet depiction of his young son in 25 colored squares. Also: "Current: River Photography from the Monsen Collection" features the work of four photographers. Also: "day ring, night ring" are sound artist Steve Roden's two new installations that respond to the museum's permanent wonder room, Skyspace by James Turrell. Also: Akio Takamori's "The Laughing Monks" combines the UW art professor's own ceramic work with pieces from the Henry's collection.

Work by 86-year-old Japanese-American artist Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani. . Also: "These Walls Can Speak: Untold Stories From Three Historic Buildings" celebrates the Kong Yick Buildings, Higo, and the Eastern Hotel through history, testimony, and artifacts.

"Tetrascope" is a group show featuring Catherine Houston, Shirley Travis, Keith Johnson, and William Fahey. Also: Avant-garde painter Phil Fagerholm takes on science and religion in "Creation Is Not an Ism: Art of an Intelligent Design."

Xiaoze Xie continues his realistic oil studies of newspaper stacks found in library archives, while Ying-Yueh Chuang sculpts detailed ceramic creatures in "Yuan."

Imaginative lithographs from the 1970s by Mexican print artist Francisco Toledo. Also: new etchings by American print artist Peter Milton combine real buildings into imaginary spaces in "Continuum." Also: the Antique Prints Dept. features etchings by Ralph M. Pearson (1883-1958).

Experience Music Project "DoubleTake: From Monet to Lichtenstein" pairs in unexpected ways 28 modern and classic paintings from Paul Allen's private collection, many not seen by the public in over 50 years. Some sample matches: Van Gogh and Ernst, Monet and DeKooning, Signac and Rothko. Curated by art historian and Impressionism expert Paul Hayes Tucker.

Minimalist still-life floral paintings by James Waterman in "Awaken," and childhood memory-infused oil paintings by Ontario artist Darlene Cole in "Some Sweet Day."

Fountainhead Sheila Evans' acute pastel studies explore the abstract undersides of leaves in "Rhythm and Silence." Also: Vaguely surreal oils and acrylics by Washington painter Anne John in "Beyond Boundaries."

G. Gibson Gallery In"Katrina-land: Photographs of the Hurricane's Devastation," four photographers turn their lenses on the post-Katrina wake of devastation in New Orleans in a heart-breaking reminder of a catastrophe of weather and government failure we shouldn't forget. With striking work by Chris Jordan, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Wyatt Gallery, and Will Steacy.

Seattle videographer Thomas Ager uses light boxes and video elements in "Places Overlooked / Autochthonous Paintings," while landscape artist and ceramicist David Traylor presents mixed-media sculpture and paintings in "Veiled Targets/Buoys/Filled Vessels."

Chris Engman's photographs insert manmade items like scaffolding or a photo of tree into natural settings. Also: mild-mannered superhero Mark Newport knits a force field around his kids in one of his comic book prints, and knits actual superhero suits as well.

BYO found object and be an artist at the gallery's unconventional exhibit. Or be an art critic and jot down your interpretation of other people's objets. At least, I think that's what their press release said.

Lawrimore Project For its second show, "This Is Gallery," the stylish new art space along the city's industrial south corridor presents a sampler from its edgy collection of artists, including Tivon Rice, Sami Ben Larbi, Lead Pencil Studio, Chris Jordan, SuttonBeresCuller, and Cris Bruch.

"The Flattening and Opening of Space" by Carrie Bodle and Margie Livingston, and "Floating Plaster/City Motion" by Robert Campbell and Yuki Nakamura are the results of experimental collaborations between visual and digital artists.

Dave McGranaghan's oil paintings capture local locales with a dreamy realism, while Sam Chapman works with mixed media and pastels in "Lost in the Woods."

Jana Brevick combines her "ability to commandeer unsuspecting objects" with a fascination with old-school espionage in "Tinker, Tailor, Jeweler, Spy." Also: Sculptor Sara Osebold references winter in "Four Stages of Snow."

Pacific Northwest Coast art is celebrated in red cedar, silver, abalone, and a rich variety of other materials by various artists in "Northern Brilliance."

West Edge Sculpture Invitational You may have already noticed sculptures sprouting up along the waterfront. This is the third annual effort by a coalition of sculptors and art-lovers to bring the work of 29 artists (some big names like Ann Morris, Phillip Levine, and Gerard Tsutakawa) to the pedestrians around the Harbor Steps and Benaroya Hall for two months.

Nancy Callan's playful glass objects in "Woolgathering"; silver leaf mingles with resin in "Translucent Truths," paintings by Shea Bajaj. Also: kiln-cast glass by New Zealander Layla Walter in "Camellia."

Poetry is presented as visual art in this exhibit of work by "five contemporary visual poets" (is there such a thing as a "nonvisual poet"?): Joshua Beckman, Jen Bervin, Mary Ruefle, Robert Seydel, and Nico Vassilakis. Organized by Wave Books.

Bellevue Arts Museum Garry Knox Bennett has created 52 wry and funky chairs in "Call Me Chairmaker." Also: Asian textiles inform the work of two American artists in "Wrapped in Color: Kimonos by Tim Harding, Jackets by Jon Eric Riis." Also: Work from 14 studios in "Studio Glass: Decorative and Functional Objects."

The secret trove of idiosyncratic pencil and watercolor pictures and manuscripts by the self-taught recluse Henry Darger (1892-1973) were only discovered upon his death. They illuminate an imaginary world at war whose heroes are young girls. The Frye presents samples from the American Folk Art Museum in New York. Also: "Klompen" is the latest kinetic sculptural installation from sound artist Trimpin featuring nearly 100 wooden clogs hanging from the ceiling connected to a computer. Oh, why not?

Nordic Heritage Museum In the vast black and white canvases of "The Promise of Happiness," young British painter Michel Thompson effectively captures the dramatic loneliness and quiet unseen forces of the remote areas of Scandinavia, Alaska, and Iceland, where weather ravages the terrain and ignites the psyche.

Seattle Asian Art Museum German-born sound artist and sculptor Trimpin unveils his latest work, "Picnics, Rhythms and Vacations," which involves hundreds of random slides found at flea markets projected on the gallery walls accompanied by a percussive composition. Also: In "Discovering Buddhist Art—Seeking the Sublime," nearly 100 works represent the influence of Buddhism on Asian art and culture. The wonderful array of antique snuff bottles is a highlight. Also: Tooba, a powerful, haunting allegorical video by Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat about a woman who merges with a tree. Also: "A Northwest Summer: Six Exhibitions—One Celebration" includes studio glass art from the Jon and Mary Shirley collection; art deco sculpture from SAM's early days; and "Night Sounds," 14 significant interconnected works by Mark Tobey and Morris Graves.

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