EXHIBITIONS: Scientist, professor present their art

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Art: Alexander Kozik's "Rendezvous," 2010, watercolor, 14 inches by 10 inches (cropped)
Art: Alexander Kozik's "Rendezvous," 2010, watercolor, 14 inches by 10 inches (cropped)

Second Friday and second Saturday art events are coming up in Davis and Sacramento — and UC Davis is represented in both.

Professor Emeritus Gyöngy Laky will participate in the Second Saturday Art Walk (Sept. 8) in Sacramento, while project scientist Alexander Kozik will show some of his watercolor work in the 2nd Friday ArtAbout (Sept. 14) in Davis.

Kozik is a bioinformatics specialist at the Genome Center, working primarily in data visualization. Ten years ago he merged his scientific side with his artistic side — by interpreting biological data in colors and shape, developing numerous computer programs to transform dry numbers into unique, attractive, colorful graphs and forms. See his work on his personal website.

“I want to show scientists and others the beauty in the world of numerical data and DNA sequences,” he wrote in his artist statement for the 2nd Friday ArtAbout.

In parallel, he paints with watercolors — expressing dreams and fantasies. His selections for his 2nd Friday ArtAbout exhibition will come from a series he calls Colors.

The one-night show is scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Ray Johnston photography studio, 803 Second St., Suite 302 (third floor of the Chen Building at Second and G streets). Johnston is showing some of his work, too: underwater photography, in an exhibition he calls Sea of Dreams — A World of Water.

Laky, affiliated with the art and design departments, has assembled a new exhibition, Marks of Narration, opening Tuesday (Sept. 4) at the b. sakata garo fine art gallery, 923 20th St., Sacramento. A reception is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on Second Saturday (Sept. 8).

She is a self-described environmentalist and artist-activist, working primarily with wood gleaned from orchard pruning, park and garden trimmings, and street trees.

Recently she became particularly interested in symbolic systems such as letters, graphic representations, hieroglyphs, ideographs, morphemes, pictographs, runes, signs and syllabary — and how parts of branches, with their idiosyncratic shapes, can also become signs and symbols, to be read and to convey meaning, as in her work, Writing on the Wall.

Laky’s website.

ON CAMPUS

• Rapunzyl's Designs — By Craft Center felting instructor Rebecca Klein. Through Sept. 7, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Summer hours: 12:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 12:30-7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

Cielo Rojo — Maceo Montoya, artist, writer and assistant professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies, presents 17 paintings in charcoal and acrylic on paper, plus five limited-edition silkscreen prints based on the Cielo Rojo series. Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, or art workshop of the new dawn, 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland. Call for exhibition hours: (530) 402-1065.

Ignite! the Art of Sustainability UC Davis is the first stop for this traveling exhibition comprising the works of 13 California artists, including two from the UC Davis faculty: Professor Ann Savageau and Professor Emerita Gyöngy Laky, each of whom works with reused and repurposed materials. Through Aug. 31, Design Museum, Cruess Hall (enter off California Avenue). Regular hours: noon-4 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed weekends and holidays). See separate story.

More Ignite! Two works from the exhibition are being shown through Aug. 31 at the Pence Gallery, 212 D St., Davis. Regular hours, 11:30-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, and 7-9 p.m. (6 p.m. opening for members), 2nd Friday ArtAbout.

AT SHIELDS LIBRARY

• Reimagining Shields, Part 2 — Proposals for a new north entry and renovated courtyard, from design students. Mark Kessler, assistant professor, had asked them to consider ways to better connect the library and the Quad “as the heart of the American campus.” Kessler blamed “missteps in design” for leaving the campus with the library and Quad adjacent “but unresponsive to one another” — i.e., with its west-facing entrance, Shields Library “turns its back on the Quad.” Said Daniel Goldstein, Arts and Humanities librarian: “Come see how this talented group of students imagined a redesigned Peter J. Shields and let us know what you think.” Send questions or comments to Goldstein, dgoldstein@ucdavis.edu.

• UC Davis Traditions Past and Present — A sampling from the photograph collection of the university archives, keeper of such memories as Labor Day, Frosh Dinks, Tank Rush, Frosh-Soph Brawl and Wild West Days. Exhibit prepared by Sara Gunasekara, collections manager. Through fall quarter. For more information or to share your memories of UC Davis traditions, send an e-mail to Special Collections, speccoll@ucdavis.edu.

The photograph collection.

• Library Staff Favorites — A wide array of titles and subjects representing the diversity of reading tastes among library staff. Visual bibliography. Exhibit prepared by Michelle Brackett, mbrackett@lib.ucdavis.edu, and Robin Gustafson rlgustafson@ucdavis.edu.

The Shields Library exhibitions are in the lobby. Summer hours (through Sept. 14): 7:30 a.m.-8p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 1-7 p.m. Sunday. Holidays and other exceptions.

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Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

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