A Couple in Conversation: Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour exhibit 'Not the Whole Picture' at the Whatcom Museum

So many of us have boxes of photos stashed in closets and in storage units. So many of us have odd little collections of bottles and baskets and vintage metal toys. Through the eyes of Gour and Amundson, these objects become art that speaks to all of us.

“Not the Whole Picture,” an exhibit of the work of WWU art professors Pierre Gour and Garth Amundson, reflects the 40 years the pair has spent as partners, individual artists and collaborators. 

Though it is not a retrospective, the exhibit at the Whatcom Museum running through July 27, 2025 is a thorough exploration of Amundson and Gour’s paintings, installations and photography.

Collectors and curators of toys, woven baskets, and photographs, the artists elevate these ephemeral collections of kitsch to art. 

The exhibit opens with the largest, boldest pieces: giant mandalas of stitched together photographs. Gour, a painter, assembled the photographs and Amundson, a photographer, sewed them together by hand. Large, colorful, and fascinating in the whole and upon close inspection, the pieces reflect their years together, vacations they have taken, family members they have loved and lost, friends they have made over the years, and, yes, pets.