The ‘Wisdom of the Apple’ immersive experience opens Friday in Davis

Think art, and Apple computers. And Adam and Eve. An immersive techno-art Installation Second Bite: the Wisdom of the Apple, using dozens of Apple computers to revisit the most widely known story in the world, will be featured in 40 events in Davis from March 1 to May 31. The events will continue each Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., 1930 5^th St. (warehouse of Omsoft Technologies), Davis.

Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. Visit here for more information and reservations. The interactive exhibition is hosted in part by a grant from the City of Davis Arts and Cultural Affairs. This is the first of 13 weekends in which one can experience the new, modern portrait of Eve. Participants must choose a date and time (15 minutes each ticket) to immerse themselves in a semi-circle of dozens of computers and "go for a ride." 

All ages are welcome although some imagery is suggestive and may not be appropriate for young children, the sponsors caution.

Art Studio Visiting Artist Lecture Series is Thursday

Noon concert at Pitzer too

Rodrigo Valenzuela’s photography, video and installations blend documentary and fictional forms often involving narratives of immigration and the working class. Valenzuela, who will speak Thursday, Feb. 28, is a native of Chile based in Los Angeles. He has had recent exhibitions at Cloaca Projects, San Francisco; Laurence Miller Gallery, New York; the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum; and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle.  Valenzuela is an assistant professor at University of California, Los Angeles, and the recipient of a 2017 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors award.

Recent residencies include Core Fellowship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Maine), MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Nebraska), Lightwork (Syracuse) and the Center for Photography at Woodstock (New York).

Also Thursday, and every Thursday, is The Shinkoskey Noon Concert, which is always free.  The concert at 12:05 p.m. at the Recital Hall, Pitzer Center, features the music of Bernstein, Sondheim, Blitzstein and others.

Save these dates next week...

The winter quarter open studios program is coming up on Friday, March 8, 6 to 9 p.m. in the Grad Studios and TB9 on the UC Davis campus.

On Saturday, March 9, 2 to 3:30 p.m., Jock Reynolds (MFA, 1972) looks at the work of UC Davis first generation artist Manuel Neri through lenses of personal memory and deep art historical understanding. Reynolds, who studied under Neri and served as his teaching assistant at Davis, is the author of Manuel Neri: The Human Figure in Plaster and on Paper (2018, Yale University Press). In this special presentation at the Manetti Shrem Museum, Reynolds will discuss Neri’s studio process, which he observed firsthand, and will explore the artist’s impact on the field of sculpture.

California artist Viola Frey works on view at di Rosa

Viola Frey: Center Stage is on view Feb. 23 through Dec. 29 at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free to individuals under the age of 17, and $18 for adults. For more information on purchasing tickets and directions visit here.

Also, in Gallery 1, Building a Different Model: Selections from the di Rosa Collection.

Guest curated by Dan Nadel, the "selections" exhibition highlights the work of 40 artists who address the world by offering generative visions of transformation and repair through social, physical, and ceremonial relationships.

Frey was born in Lodi in 1933, and died in Oakland in 2004. She received her BFA and an honorary doctorate from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and attended graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans. She was awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and received the Award of Honor in Sculpture from the Arts Commission of San Francisco.

A fiercely independent artist up to her passing in 2004, Viola Frey is most widely known for her larger-than-life figurative ceramic sculptures.

This exhibition offers an opportunity to trace the artist’s career through a chronological progression of work spanning five decades in a range of media, many of which have never been shown publicly. The artist’s wide-ranging interests across identity, class, culture, consumerism, environmental issues, and "most notably, an undeniable undercurrent of a feminist statement that placed women at the fore, parallel many of the most pressing issues of our day."

Public reception for all exhibitions is Saturday, March 9, 4 p.m.

Don’t forget...

UC Davis alum Tavarus Blackmon’s Exquisite Diversion is at Verge through March. See this story in a previous Arts Blog for details.

Manetti Shrem continues its Xicanx Futurity Exhibition, and the continuing Bruce Nauman Blue and Yellow Corridor through the spring. More information here.  

The UC Davis Capital Culture List features an upcoming university theater production, Flora the Red Menace, and various community arts events in a podcast, below, and blog. And see the video clip of "Flora."