EIRIK JOHNSON: PINE
Summer residency at Foster/White Gallery
June 4 – July 25, 2026
Opening Reception: First Thursday, June 4, 6 – 8 pm
Hosted at Foster/White Gallery
220 3rd Avenue South
Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA
Koplin Del Rio is pleased to present PINE, a solo exhibition by Seattle-born photographer Eirik Johnson, on view June 4 through July 25, 2026. The exhibition will be presented as a summer residency hosted by Foster/White Gallery in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood.
As Koplin Del Rio transitions to a salon-style viewing model by appointment, this summer presentation marks an exciting collaboration between two longstanding Seattle galleries. Foster White Gallery has extended its space to Koplin Del Rio during a season when Pioneer Square will welcome an international audience for the 2026 World Cup and Seattle Art Fair.
Deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest, PINE offers an atmospheric and emotionally resonant encounter with the region’s landscape, music history, and spirit of youthful longing. The exhibition features Johnson’s nocturnal, long-exposure photographs of carved trees—works that transform acts of inscription into luminous monuments of memory. Presented as backlit lightboxes, traditional photographic prints, and a singular neon work, PINE considers the tree as both witness and archive: a keeper of secrets.
Grounded in the intimate act of carving names, initials, song lyrics, and private declarations into trees, PINE explores the impulse to leave a mark—to declare, “I was here.” In Johnson’s photographs, these carvings are illuminated at night with fire, moonlight, sparklers, and prismatic light. Through long exposure, the surfaces of the trees are transformed, appearing at once as lunar landscapes, prehistoric cave walls, or the worn skin of an elephant.
“The photographs record my own performative response to these markings and the sentiments they hold.” — Eirik Johnson
Johnson’s imagery evokes the emotional terrain of adolescence—the desire to disappear into the woods, to remember a first love, or to hold close the lyrics of a favorite song. While the original PINE project included a musical component and companion vinyl record, this Seattle presentation focuses exclusively on the photographic and sculptural works.
The project’s connection to Seattle’s cultural history remains central. Many carvings reference musicians and songs, recalling the city’s enduring legacy of music, performance, and creative experimentation. Previous presentations of PINE have been held at Oregon State University and Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco, with an earlier Seattle iteration featuring a one-night-only concert and installation at the now-defunct Oxbow Art Space in Georgetown.
Returning the series to Seattle in summer 2026 offers a timely opportunity to engage both local audiences and visitors experiencing Pioneer Square during one of the city’s most vibrant cultural seasons. Situated in one of Seattle’s oldest neighborhoods, PINE invites viewers to encounter a body of work that is unmistakably of this place: moody, musical, deeply personal, and shaped by the forests and histories of the Pacific Northwest.
