December 2025 / 9° from 90°
Iole Alessandrini, Dahlbreen, Svalbard, Norway
IOLEOGRAPHY™--Subject captured in motion through the laser plane. On the back, the laser plane across the snow.
Iole Alessandrini, To The North Pole and Back: Dahlbreen, Svalbard, Norway
Laser Plane Photography--Arctic Landscape cut across by laser planes.
In the Back Space /
9° from 90° by Iole Alessandrini
December 04, 2025 - January 17, 2026
Opening Reception, Thursday, December 4, 5-8pm
Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 11am–4pm
This December, I return to SOIL Gallery with 9° from 90°, an exhibition shaped by my 2023 journey to the Svalbard Archipelago aboard the research vessel Antigua. The title marks the closest point 9° from the North Pole.
The photographs in this exhibition were first shown in October 2024 at the Rainier Gallery inside the renowned Rainier Club, where they were formatted to reflect the scale of its walls.
At SOIL, they have been re-situated to respond to the gallery’s intimate architecture while carrying the spatial memory of their original installation.
In the Arctic, I sought to record not just landscapes but the luminous footprints of human presence — traces made visible through the Laser Plane, the technology I developed in 2000 with Ed Mannery at the Bellevue Art Museum. Visitors may have their own ioleogramsTM taken, images that reveal subtle imprints of movement and energy when they cross the planes.
The exhibition includes large-format landscapes and a video and sound installation, the latter created with Marcell Marias. Small photographs and ioleograms will be available for purchase.
This project began its exhibition journey at SOIL before I left Seattle in 2023 and has since traveled to The Grocery Studios, Cornish College of the Arts, Bellevue College Gallery, the Seattle Art Fair, Lusio–Shine On, Tlaxcala3 in Mexico, Tacoma Light Trail, and the Rainier Club.
9° from 90° invites viewers to experience light as a record of presence and to reflect on our delicate connection to the places we touch.
This project is supported in part by the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and by generous Kickstarter backers.
Artist Statement / Bio
Born in Italy and based in Seattle, Iole Alessandrini is an artist and architect working with light, technology, and space. A SOIL member since 2009, she is a Betty Bowen Award recipient, Rockefeller Media Arts nominee, Artist Trust Fellow, and recipient of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture grants and more. Her public and gallery installations create immersive environments shaped by light, including her recent permanent work The Raven and The Light at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. Her work is exhibited internationally.