Tag Archives: Paul Kuniholm

“Empty Space” Slow Looking at PKULTRA in Seattle

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For their third Slow Art Day, the art gallery PKULTRA, in Seattle, WA, invited visitors to experience an installation by gallery owner, Paul Kuniholm, titled “Project Urban Penthouse.”

“Project Urban Penthouse” by Paul Kuniholm.

The installation was an empty space above an exhibition venue for the specific purpose of, in Paul Kuniholm’s words, “void intervention: an encapsulation of nothingness for nothingness’ sake.” Said another way, it’s an intentional use of space for nothing.

Kuniholm is a fourth-generation Seattle-based public artist of Swedish descent who works in sculpture, video, mural art, time-based work, as well as digital and binary art (which was the focus of PKULTRA’s Slow Art Day event last year).

Visitors to the gallery were invited to look slowly at Project Urban Penthouse.

To look at “nothing”, in a fast-paced, tech-based, and materialistic culture, is an interesting provocation to the idea that everything must have a purpose.

At its radical core, slow looking, like art in general, is also purposeless in the sense that it’s best when it’s not a transaction, but rather seen as something valuable in and of itself, without recourse to justification.

Thus, we at Slow Art Day HQ like Kuniholm’s provocation and look forward to what interesting exhibit he creates for Slow Art Day 2025.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl


P.S. for other installation artworks by Kuniholm, you can view his installation artwork exhibition with Julian Weber Architects. You can also check out the Instagram accounts for artist Paul Kuniholm as well as Art Gallery PKULTRA.

PKULTRA’s Binary Encoded Slow Art Day

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For their second Slow Art Day, the art gallery PKULTRA, in Seattle, WA, invited visitors to look slowly at the art of gallery owner, Paul Kuniholm – a public artist who works in sculpture, video, mural art, time-based work, as well as digital and, for this exhibit, binary art.

Binary encoding artwork by Paul Kuniholm.

The binary-encoded art series for Slow Art Day consisted of wayfinding and fine art paintings using binary encoding of various light-hearted narratives from emojis, positive affirmations, cognitive behavioral therapy maxims and cheerful quips.

In addition, Kuniholm hosted a live hour-long audio ‘slow’ podcast with lots of silence, random conversation with passerbys, and others during the gallery’s Slow Art Day.

At one point during the podcast, Kuniholm reports that during his training at the Seattle Art Museum he was told the typical visitor spends 7 seconds looking at any individual artwork (a statistic we’ve seen and reported on before). He also muses about the ‘equation’ for slow looking.

After participants looked slowly, they were asked to take a whimsical exit survey (see below).

  • 1. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR SLOW ART DAY EXPERIENCE TODAY?   [    ] YES    [     ] NO
  • 2.  HAS ANYONE COMMENTED, YOU SEEM NUMERICAL? A TEN, ETC [    ] YES    [     ] NO
  • 3. DO YOU HAVE A SECRET “MAGIC” NUMBER? [    ] YES    [     ] NO
  • 4.  DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE NUMBER SONG? [    ] YES    [     ] NO
  • 5.  DO YOU USE YOUR FINGERS, DIGITS, FOR MATH?        [    ] YES    [     ] NO
  • 6.  ARE YOU ALWAYS LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE?        [    ] YES    [     ] NO

At Slow Art Day HQ we are glad that PKULTURA has joined the Slow Art Day movement, and hope that other artist-run galleries take inspiration to host their own event in 2024.

-Johanna, Phyl, Ashley, and Jessica Jane.

P.S. Check out their Instagram for more information about PKULTURA.