OPENING SOON

Three more of the campus’s fall exhibitions are set to open this week and next, one at the C.N. Gorman Museum and two at the Nelson Gallery:

• Larry McNeil xhe dhé and Da-ka-xeen Mehner — The Gorman presents this exhibition by two native Alaskan artists,  exploring ideas that inform our times — from their ancestral and personal histories to global climate change.

The artists work in photography and lithography, and, for the former, incorporate Kodachrome film in homage to its pending demise and place within the history of photography.

McNeil and Mehner are affiliated with the Dakl’aweidi Kéet Gooshi Hít in Klukwan, Alaska. The Dakl’aweidi Kéet Gooshi Hít, or Killerwhale Fin House, is one of the oldest traditional longhouses on the Northwest Coast.

McNeil is Mehner's maternal uncle, which carries a special significance in the Tlingit culture.

McNeil has won numerous awards and fellowships, including the Eiteljorg Fellowship and, just recently, an Arts and Humanities Fellowship from Boise State University where he is a professor of photography.

Mehner is a photographer, installation and multimedia artistwho teaches at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

The exhibition is set to open Sept. 28 — when the museum reopens after summer break. The exhibition is scheduled to run through Dec. 5. A lecture program with both artists is scheduled along with a reception for 6 p.m. Oct. 27.

The museum is in 1316 Hart Hall. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.

Two exhibitions are set to open Oct. 27 at the Nelson Gallery: Wonderers in the main gallery and Lampo Leong in the Entryway Gallery.

(Also this quarter, the Nelson is presenting Works by Maurine (Fay) Morse Nelson, which opened Sept. 8 in Gallagher Hall, home of the Graduate School of Management. See Other Exhibitions below.)

• Wonderers — In guest-curating this exhibition for the Nelson, Matthias Geiger, assistant professor in the art department, gathered images from seven photographers and a collective whose work reflects the uprooted, peripatetic, nomadic existence that is many younger people live today.

Said Geiger: “Wonderers are individuals traveling via train-hopping or mobile home, living in utopian communities, gathering at outdoor festivals, dwelling in communal housing projects and forming fellowships over brief or extended periods of time.

“They are driven by an urge to explore and experience the wonders of the world outside of mainstream culture. We can observe this in the photographs included in this exhibition, which are filled with a sense of adventure, risk, freedom and raw creativity and beauty.”

The exhibitors include Abby Banks, Richard Gilles, Justine Kurland, Joel Sternfeld, and Kyer Wiltshire, and the Cutter Collective.

Geiger said their subjects include collectives, tribes and bands of outsiders. “We are invited to meet these wanderers to catch a glimpse of their unconventional lifestyles and countercultural values. They may give us pause to re-envision and reimagine our own lives, families and communities.”

The Nelson announced that a catalog will be published — presenting essays and color plates.

The exhibition is schedule to open with a public reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 and continue through Dec. 12, at the gallery in 124 Art Building. Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and by appointment Friday-Sunday.

• Lampo Leong — Guest-curated by Katharine P. Burnett, professor, art history. Oct. 7-Dec. 12, Nelson Entryway Gallery, 125 Art Building.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

• The Architecture of Thought — Ceremic works by Latika Jain, wheel throwing instructor at the Craft Center. Through Oct. 29, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Reception, 3-6 p.m. Oct. 23. Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and 10 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends.

• Autobiographical Comics: "Sometimes a Mere Glance Will Do ..." — An exhibition and selected bibliography of autobiographical comics and associated research resources, celebrating the increasingly popular medium for artists and exploring its enduring appeal to readers of all ages. Through Oct. 31 in the main display cases in the lobby of Shields Library. Hours: 7:30 a.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-midnight Sunday.

• Monotypes-Mixed Media on Paper — Described by the artist, Emma Luna, as "unique impressions produced by painting oil inks onto a plate." Through Oct. 31, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

• Works by Maurine (Fay) Morse Nelson — Largely overshadowed by her husband, the Nelson Gallery namesake, Fay Morse Nelson "was "clearly a talented artist in her own right," says Renny Pritikin, director of the Nelson Gallery, who curated this exhibition.

It includes almost all of Fay Morse Nelson's works from the university's Fine Arts Collection — with most of the works being exhibited for the first time in 13 years.

Fay Morse Nelson attended the Kansas City Art Institute,  Northwestern University (Bachelor of Arts, 1927) and UC Berkeley (Master of Fine Arts, 1948). She married Richard Nelson in 1930.

Richard Nelson, founder of the studio art department, died in 1972; Fay Morse Nelson died in 2000.

"In doing research on 20th-century between-the-war artworks in the collection, I rediscovered (Fay Morse) Nelson's works, and thought that it would be appropriate to share them with a new generation of the Davis community," Pritikin said.

"Her work is a good example of American Modernism, especially as seen between the world wars of the 20th century. While European artists were exploring abstraction, as in Cubism, or experimental color, as in the Fauves, or psychological barriers, as in Surrealism, American artists by and large continued to explore Realism.

"In Nelson's work, we can see her trying out a variety of styles, trying to reconcile representational art with the avant garde developments abroad: a faux primitive style, as in Untitled (Construction Scene), a kind of sweet but twisted realism, as in Self Portrait, and a stylized or mannered realism, as in Untitled (Two Dogs).

"It is a benefit of the university's wonderful collection that we can have the pleasure of displaying the work of this under-recognized woman."

Through Jan. 21, Gallagher Hall (home of the Graduate School of Management).