Tacoma-based artist David Hytone has a new solo exhibition at Tacoma Art Museum, filling the gallery with paintings, sculptures and large-scale installations that push traditional painting into installation territory.

"Project NW: David Hytone: The Lee Shore" opened Thursday, Sept. 17, at TAM's downtown location, 1701 Pacific Ave.

The show runs through Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027.

The exhibition is a site-specific installation combining paintings with sculptural elements, ballasts and mechanisms, according to the museum's exhibition page. Hytone's work plays with scale and presentation to explore themes of nostalgia and absurdity. The show marks a new approach to what the museum calls his "tchotchke" series.

Arts critic Amanda Manitach, writing in The Stranger, described Hytone's pieces as "uncanny mixed-media quasi-landscapes on canvas that are populated with hypothetical dream architecture and objects not from the 'real' world."

She noted the TAM installation leans into dream imagery and symbolism, with sinking toy ships and carnival roller coasters among the visual elements. Manitach wrote that Hytone has spent roughly a decade developing his style, and that some pieces are large enough to push traditional painting into installation territory.

In a South Sound Magazine fall arts preview, Hytone described his process as building images from leftover materials and fragments of earlier work.

Ellen Ito, TAM's Curator of Collections and Special Projects, organized the exhibition. It is part of Project NW, a museum series spotlighting artists from the Pacific Northwest. A previous installment featured artist Ralph Pugay, whose show opened Feb. 14.

TAM held a free opening reception Thursday evening, Sept. 17.

The museum is open Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Monday through Wednesday. Adult admission is $18. Seniors and military pay $15, and youth ages 6 to 18 pay $10. Every Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m., admission is free.