Seattle Art Museum is about to get a big makeover—at least in the lobby.
For the past eight years, visitors to SAM (as the museum is often called) would walk under a massive hanging tree sculpture immediately upon entering. This longterm installation was the Middle Fork sculpture by John Grade, a Seattle-based artist. Earlier this February it was just dismantled and removed from the SAM lobby—formally known as the Brotman Forum—to make way for something new.
Seattle Art Museum announced that Middle Fork will be replaced with Little Cloud Sky (2025) by FriendsWithYou, a LA-based duo that consists of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III. According to SAM, the new installation “will feature 40 sculptures of the artists’ signature ‘Little Cloud’ character suspended from the ceiling, greeting visitors with a message about the beauty of togetherness and the power of joy and nature.” These four-feet wide plastic clouds are embellished with smiling faces.
The now-dismantled Middle Fork sculpture was modeled after “the contours of a 140-year-old western hemlock tree located in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle,” according to the SAM blog. It will be returned to the forest where it will decompose naturally at the base of the tree that inspired it. This process will be captured with motion-sensor video and time-lapse photography. Read more about Middle Fork on John Grade’s website.
FriendsWithYou’s “Little Cloud” character has been featured in installations at London’s Covent Garden and Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park, both in 2024, as well as in Miami and Las Vegas. This will be the duo’s first long-term museum installation. It was curated by José Carlos Diaz, who is SAM’s Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art.
Mark your calendar now: Little Cloud Sky will debut at SAM on June 27, 2025. The installation will remain for two years at minimum.
The lobby of the Seattle Art museum is a public space that is free to all. So you don’t need to purchase a museum ticket to go in and view the new Little Cloud Sky installation at SAM.
You can read more about the new installation on the SAM blog.