In Echo (repeat and reflect), graphic designer and educator Jayme Yen reimagines the Frye Salon as fields of color and text, transforming the Founding Collection into a layered, poetic experience within the new Frye Parlor. Her process involved reading the paintings to create a personal inventory—an intimate map of the gallery that invites deeper reflection. 

In celebration of this project’s debut, join Yen and Seattle artist Matthew Offenbacher at 6:30 pm for a dynamic conversation exploring this process of translation, alongside larger ideas of design, installation art, and what it takes to create an environment that softens the boundaries of a traditional museum space.

Before the talk, from 6–6:30 pm, participate in an interactive exercise in the Frye Salon alongside Yen and Offenbacher. Using an activity created by Yen, you’ll engage in close looking by translating visual imagery into written words before collectively discussing the resulting prose. 

About the Participants

Jayme Yen is a graphic designer whose work explores the poetics of visual information and the reader’s experience of word, page, screen, and space. She is a co-organizer of the Seattle Art Book Fair and an assistant professor of design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Matthew Offenbacher is a longtime Seattle artist, organizer, and publisher. His most recent exhibition, Charms, was at the I-5 Colonnade Park this past autumn.