The arboretum hosts two art installations: Crested Oak and From Landfill to Landscape.

NEW THIS WEEK

• Me and My Flame — Husband-and-wife Craft Center volunteers Jeff and Lisa Geren present new works in glass, bronze, wood, leather, ceramic and felted wool. Aug. 5-Sept. 2, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Regular hours: 12:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 12:30-7 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Closing reception for the artists, 6-7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2.

SPECIAL EVENT NEXT WEEK

The Nelson Gallery announced a special program next week with Sacramento's Nathan Cordero, whose work is on display in the Nelson's summer exhibition, Are You Destined to Become Your Mother?

The event is scheduled for Aug. 12 in conjunction with the 2nd Friday ArtAbout, an evening of open galleries and artist receptions in downtown Davis and beyond.

The Nelson Gallery is just a little beyond downtown, in the old University Club, now called Nelson Hall, on Old Davis Road. Admission is free and open to the public.

The program is set to begin at 6 p.m. with Cordero and Renny Pritikin, director of the Nelson Gallery, in a conversation about Cordero's work.

Next will come Chris Daubert, artist and Sacramento City College instructor,  and Sac City College professor, and Tim Foster, editor of Sacramento's Midtown Monthly, talking about Cordero's Nelson exhibition. Daubert's presentation is set for 6:45 and Foster's for 7:15.

Cordero was born in Woodland and is self-taught as an artist. His wall installations often involve cutting into or drawing on doorskin or other kinds of found plywood, and incorporating unusual elements such as cigarettes and razor blades.

The artist has a new body of work that involves cutting letters of the alphabet into large, dry leaves, and he also paints or cuts short phrases into wood, running all the letters together to make deciphering difficult. The phrases are overheard bits of conversation, or things he has read, in the tradition of such artists as Christopher Wool, Jenny Holzer and Ed Ruscha.

Are You Destined to Become Your Mother is scheduled to run through Aug. 20. The gallery's regular hours during summer are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Saturday, and by appointment on Fridays.

OTHER ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

• More Than Just a Picture: A Garden of Graphics in Special Collections — University Archivist John Skarstad presents a selection of botanical engravings, line drawings and watercolors from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The early illustrations, made for growers and scientists, show plants in ways that would not be duplicated until the advent of color photography. Through summer, lobby, Shields Library. Summer hours (through Sept. 9): 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, closed Saturday and 1-7 p.m. Sunday. Exceptions: closed Monday, Sept. 5 (Labor Day).

• Nuevo Latino Cuisine — Presenting the academic side of nuevo Latin or Pan-Latin cuisine, the exhibition draws on the University Library’s collections on native foods, agricultural sustainability, and the impact of historical events on the definitions of national cuisines and the cultural representation of these varied cuisines. The scholarship comes from several disciplines: history, agricultural economics, anthropology and the life sciences. Exhibition prepared by Myra Appel, head of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Government Information Services Department, and bibliographer for Latin American Studies. Through summer, Shields Library. Summer hours (through Sept. 9): 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, closed Saturday and 1-7 p.m. Sunday. Exceptions: closed Monday, Sept. 5 (Labor Day).

• Seasons — Clyde Elmore, a retired UC Davis weed scientist, presents another collection of landscape and wildlife images from North America. Through Aug. 30, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Regular hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

• Visual Transparencies — Showcasing prints as "an effective form of communication beyond e-mail," states the exhibition's organizer, Melanie Yazzie. The prints are from an international collective of printmakers, a group that calls itself Visual Transparencies — and which has donated a three-volume collection to the C.N. Gorman Museum, where this exhibition will run through Sept. 9. "The end result is a strong voice that tells us what is on the mind of these artists from many different parts of the world," said Yazzie, a sculptor, painter and printmaker, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "The collection is wide and demonstrates to the public that printmaking is alive and is an art form that lets artists reach out across many countries." The museum is in 1316 Hart Hall. Summer hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.

OFF-CAMPUS

• Wayne Thiebaud, professor emeritus of art — Five of his paintings are on display at the California Museum in Sacramento, in conjunction with his induction Dec. 14 into the California Hall of Fame. See separate stories on Thiebaud, "Painter, teacher, visionary" and his induction into the California Hall of Fame. The museum has gathered personal items from all of the 2010 inductees, for an exhibition that is scheduled to run through Oct. 31. Thiebaud's picks: Bikini Figure (1966), Waterland (1996), Two Tulip Sundaes (2009), and Intersection Building and Cliff Ridge (both from 2010), all oils, on canvas or wood. The museum is in the California State Archives building at 1020 O St., at the corner of 10th Street, one block south of Capitol Park. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. (No one admitted after 4:30 p.m.) Closed all major holidays and furlough Fridays.