Circles, Simplicity, and the Sea: SJIMA’s Fall 2025 Exhibitions Open This Weekend

The San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) is delighted to welcome you to our Fall 2025 exhibitions, opening this Friday, September 26. Join us for an inspiring opening weekend as we unveil three distinctive shows across our galleries, on view through December 1. Together, these exhibitions invite reflection on interconnectedness, the beauty of form, and the fragile brilliance of marine ecosystems.

Nichols Gallery: All is a Circle Within Me by Emily McIlroy

Emily McIlroy’s works explore the eternal interconnectedness of all beings and phenomena, expressed through two distinct modes of representation—figurative and organic, abstract and geometric. Anchored by the circle as a universal symbol of wholeness and timelessness, the exhibition includes Blessings to the Seven Directions, a geometric meditation on infinity, and River of Their Passing, a sweeping figurative composition that merges the lives of salmon and caribou in a continuous cycle of renewal. McIlroy’s art embraces a worldview where past, present, future, and all living things are profoundly bound together.

River of Their Passing, (detail), ink and collage on paper, 70" x 600"

North Gallery: Complex Simplicity by Jan Hoy

Jan Hoy’s sculptural forms embody austere elegance and quiet strength. Created primarily in clay with an iron-oxide finish, and occasionally in steel and bronze, Hoy’s works balance positive and negative space with deliberate precision. Each piece is, in the artist’s words, “a three-dimensional answer to a question,” born of years of contemplation, sketching, and refinement. Influenced by the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, these works resonate with natural rhythm and distilled movement.

Unlock, bronze, 14" x 18" x 8"

Atrium Gallery: Kelp Reverberations – A Collaborative Installation

Step into a luminous kelp forest in Kelp Reverberations, a multi-sensory installation created by artist and author Josie Iselin, artist Betsy Peabody, sound designer Ken Pearce, and composer Jonathan Kawchuk. The museum’s glass atrium transforms into an ocean forest of deep blue and turquoise cyanotype banners, immersive soundscapes, and sculptural forms woven from locally foraged bull kelp. This collaborative exhibition offers a vibrant call to recognize and protect the life-giving ecosystems of the Salish Sea.

Bull Kelp, cyanotype banner, 15" x 34"

Kelp! Reverberations is sponsored by Above/Below, The Puget Sound Restoration Fund, and Washington Sea Grant.

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Visit Us This Weekend

We invite you to experience the opening of these remarkable exhibitions during our Fall 2025 opening weekend. SJIMA is open Friday through Monday, 11 am – 5 pm. Join us to experience art that sparks reflection, discovery, and connection.

Sponsors: Honeywell Foundation, Torrance Foundation, Apex Foundation, Town of Friday Harbor, San Juan County

In-kind sponsors: Friday Harbor Suites, Harbor Rentals, Terry Ogle Painting, Printonyx