Ary (Image: Vermillion)

A regular part of the scene around Broadway and a favorite of the Capitol Hill art world, artist Darryl Ary passed away in November. He will be remembered this week in a gathering at gallery and bar Vermillion.

According to city records, he was 63.

CHS noted Ary, who many knew from his regular presence in his wheelchair in front of the Broadway Dick’s Drive-in or at City Market, in 2015 as artist Baso Fibonacci made a public call for people who had purchased Ary’s paintings over the years to help curate a show of his work. In 2013, then City Arts magazine designer Dan Paulus called Ary one of his favorite artists in Seattle.

“Darryl Ary has been on his grind for the past twenty years, hawking his wares on the mean streets of Seattle, rain or shine,” Paulus said. “Scavenging scrap lumber for canvases, he paints and scratches brutalist images that have just enough pop culture jazz to simultaneously charm and repulse.”

“Ary typically uses Wite-Out, house paint, and markers on irregularly shaped found wood,” artist Derek Erdman wrote about Ary in 2012. “His paintings often seem frantic and untamed, with a subtle hint of humor.”

While Ary found a following with his outsider work, he remained part of the neighborhood’s street scene and survived in the city underhoused but, clearly, never under respected by his friends and fans.

Many will gather Wednesday, December 18th at Vermillion to remember him. “Because this is a community gathering to remember and celebrate Darryl and his Art we are asking you to bring your favorite Darryl to show and share with everyone else who will be bringing their favorite Darryl to show and share,” the invite reads.

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