The Nelson Gallery’s spring exhibition will offer a look at how “fine art no longer need come exclusively from the inherited traditions of European forms,” says Renny Pritikin, gallery director.

“Some of the most dynamic work being done today is purely from popular American inventions like the 1930s-style pulp fiction used by Owen Smith, or the comix and cartoon tradition in these works by Nayland Blake.”

Each artist makes up one half of the Nelson exhibition, scheduled to open with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 18. The exhibition is set to run through May 23.

Smith, a member of the design faculty at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, is an illustrator whose clients include the New Yorker, Time, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated magazines. He has created 15 covers for the New Yorker; he has an illustration on page 50 of the most recent issue. And he recently completed work on a children’s book for Simon and Schuster.

Smith’s Nelson Gallery show (in the main gallery) will comprise cartoon drawings on paper and in digital video format, paintings, New Yorker covers and other work, according to a news release from the gallery.

Blake, chair of the graduate program in photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City, is known primarily as a sculptor — and in recent years he has been blogging on a near-daily basis, posting text, photographs and, most recently, cartoons (naylandblake.net).

Blake’s Nelson Gallery show (in the project room) is the first-ever offline exhibition of his autobiographical drawings cum cartoons, in which a philosophical character resembles Blake but also suggests Yogi Bear and Smokey Bear. The show also will include original black-and-white drawings, as well as digital images, in color, on a video monitor, according to the Nelson’s news release.

The Nelson is presenting two other spring exhibitions:

Nelson Entryway Gallery — 18th- and 19th-Century British Satirical Prints from the university’s Fine Arts Collection. March 18–May 23.

Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center — Youth Voices for Change, work by Sactown Heroes, affiliated with the West Sacramento Youth Resource Coalition. The teens collaborated with UC Davis researchers and artists for six months to create poetry, photos, comics and an interactive map with videos, documenting conditions that impact their lives and expressing their hopes for the future. March 23–June 20. Opening presentation and reception, noon to 2 p.m. March 31. Youth Voices for Change is a collaboration of Art of Regional Change and Healthy Youth-Healthy Regions at UC Davis, and the West Sacramento Youth Resource Coalition.

MORE SPRING EXHIBITIONS

Craft Center Gallery — Jared Tolla: Small glass pieces, March 29-April 30; and Liz Murray: Four pieces that comprise her senior thesis collection for the textile and fashion undergraduate design degree, May 7–June 4.

Design Museum — Design by Design: Juried Student Design Competition, annual survey of student talent and creativity, reflecting the multidisciplinary breadth of the Design Program, April 5–17 (Picnic Day); and Fashion Technology and Experimental Textiles by Kinor Jiang, visiting from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing, May 10–July 9.

C.N. Gorman Museum — Niu Pasifik, contemporary art from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim (including Aotearoa, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea and Australia). The exhibition, from the personal collection of curator and educator Giles Peterson. features multimedia work including graphic art, painting, drawing, animation, hip-hop music video, sculpture, photography, tattoo, installation, embroidery-textile and street fashion. April 6–June 13.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

Winter exhibitions around campus are ending today (March 12) or some still have a week or two to run (or longer). They include Faces and Places of Bygone Days, comprising photographs from the Roaring ‘20s through World War II, by Paul W. Hollingshead. The exhibition is presented by his son and daughter-in-law, William and Sharon Dianne (Fritter) Hollingshead, lifetime sustaining members of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association. The Hollingshead exhibition is set to run through March 31 at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center.

Other ongoing exhibitions.