OPENING FRIDAY (JULY 8)

The Nelson Gallery's summer exhibition opens Friday (July 8), with special hours of 5 to 8 p.m. in conjunction with Davis' 2nd Friday ArtAbout.

Then, on Thursday, July 14, the gallery holds a reception for the artist, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., free and open to the public.

Sacramento's Nathan Cordero, a self-taught installation artist, is presenting Are You Destined to Become Your Mother? — his first one-person museum show after many years of showing his work in such venues as the Axis and Verge galleries in Sacramento, Johanson Projects in Oakland and the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.

The Woodland native's 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.

He 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.

“Cordero’s work comes out of the San Francisco Mission School of folksy, representational and edgy depictions of an urban lifestyle,” said Renny Pritikin, director of the Nelson Gallery. “However, he adds his own spin that local arts professionals can recognize immediately, with its inclusion of found texts and images of beer cans, cigarettes and other quotidian stuff.

Are You Destined to Become Your Mother? is scheduled to run through Aug. 20. The Nelson Gallery is in Nelson Hall (formerly the University Club). Summer hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday, and by appointment on Fridays.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

• Drawing and Painting Gallery — By Hannah Moore, Craft Center instructor. Through July 22, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Summer hours: 12:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 12:30-7 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays.

• More Than Just a Picture: A Garden of Graphics in Special Collections — University Archivist 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: 1-5 p.m. Sunday, July 3, closed Monday, July 4, and 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: 1-5 p.m. Sunday, July 3, closed Monday, July 4, and Monday, Sept. 5 (Labor Day).

• 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.