MASTERS
OF THE FINE ARTS

• M.F.A. Showcase — Scenic, costume and lighting design by Maggie Chan, Travis Kerr, Kourtney Lampedecchio and Dee Loree Sweger. People are welcome to visit Main Theatre (Wright Hall) any time from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday (June 6) to meet the students, and to see and discuss their work for stage and screen.

• Design M.F.A. Graduation Exhibition — Comprising the works of Esther Kim and Carol Shu, Master of Fine Arts graduates in design. Through June 7, Design Museum, Cruess Hall.

• M.F.A. Exhibition: You Never Know When I'll Show You the Never — Daniel Brickman and Katherine Nulicek, installations of discrete sculptures; Kyle Dunn and Erika Romero, painting and sculpture; Dani Galietti and Jared Theis, performance art; and Terry Peterson, kinetic sculpture. June 8-29, Nelson Gallery.

Read more.

TANA art workshop staff members — including UC Davis faculty members Malaquias Montoya, Carlos Jackson and Maceo Montoya — have come together to present 24 screenprints in a Yolo Arts exhibition set to open today (June 1).

Colorful Screenprints: The Artists of TANA is the first show to feature the work of the entire staff of the 2 1/2-year-old UC Davis-run program — the men and women who help run workshops and hang exhibitions, and who provide mentorship and outreach to the community. TANA, or Taller Arte del Nuevo Amancer (art workshop of the new dawn), a project of the Department of Chicana/o Studies, is at 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland.

The TANA artwork is one half of Prints & Portraits, scheduled to run through June 27 at Gallery 625, in the Erwin Meyer Administration Building, 625 Court St., Woodland. The "portraits" are in ceramic, from students of Midtown Community School and the Einstein Education Center, both in Woodland.

The opening reception is scheduled from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The program includes a talk by Malaquias Montoya from 7 to 7:45 p.m., on the topics of Chicano art and the murals of Yolo County.

Malaquias Montoya is a professor emeritus, and Carlos Jackson and Maceo Montoya are assistant professors, all in the Department of Chicana/o Studies.

Besides the faculty members, others participating in the screenprints exhibition are Jose Chavez-Verduzco, Olivia Hernandez, Eddie Lampkin, Roque Montez, Jaime Montiel, Gilda Posada and Raquel Rojas.

Read more about TANA, in this Dateline UC Davis article about the center's opening in 2010.

Mural dedication June 8

The Department of Chicana/o Studies’ spring mural project is set for dedication next Friday (June 8) at Woodland Community College.

Maceo Montoya, assistant professor, led 20 students in the department’s annual workshop, which this year produced a work titled Our Hope Our Journey Our Dream.

The dedication is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in the walkway of Building 800. The college is at 2300 E. Gibson Road.

Read more in this article from the Daily Democrat.

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.

• A Collection of Birds in Linocut — By Emily Sin, who teaches relief printing at the Craft Center. Through June 8, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Regular hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

• Where They Overlap: Sonya Kelliher-Combs — You will know this artist is from Alaska when you look at her work made from things like walrus stomach, seal intestine, reindeer hide, dentalium (tooth or tusk shell), and elk and moose fur. Indeed, she was born in Bethel and raised in Nome, of a cultural background that includes Athabascan, Inupiaq, and a mixture of German and Irish. Working in mixed media painting and sculpture, and drawing on Alaska's native culture, she blends the organic and the synthetic, the traditional and the modern, with acrylic polymer, nylon thread, glass beads, fabric and ink — in her creation of compelling objects, translucent and ambiguous, work that defies expectations in its cultural richness and conceptual interpretations of shape, form and luminosity. Through June 8, C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Regular hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.

AT SHIELDS LIBRARY

• The Ground Beneath Our Feet: The Nikola P. Prokopovich Papers on Land Subsidence — Manuscript archivist Liz Phillips prepared this exhibition on the papers of engineering geologist Nikola P. Prokopovich (1918-99), who worked as a geologist with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region. He worked out of the bureau's Sacramento office from 1958 to 1986, investigating the geology and geochemistry of statewide water projects, including the Central Valley Project and the Solano Project. He was an avid field geologist and spent as much time as possible on site, collecting his own data. Prokopovich was particularly interested in the engineering geology of the Central Valley Project's canals and dam sites, and in the effects of state water projects and field irrigation on the surrounding landscape. The collection includes draft reports, memoranda and published writings, as well as nearly 25,000 slides and photographs documenting his work and the land around his work sites.

• "Imagination Turns Every Word Into a Bottle Rocket" — A selection of Sherman Alexie's work as a poet, short story writer, novelist and filmmaker. The exhibition's title (from Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a collection of short stories), evokes quintessential Alexie, in whatever format he writes, according to the library staff. "His words challenge, inspire and move the reader."

Exhibition prepared by the General Library Committee on Diversity, with assistance from Adam Siegel, Native American Studies bibliographer.

Presented in conjunction with the 2011-12 Campus Community Book Project, Alexie's novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

• Paper Takes: The Power of Uncivil Words — Materials from the library's Walter Goldwater Radical Pamphlets collection, part of the library's Special Collections. The exhibition debuted last fall as part of the campus's Civility Project, and now Paper Takes is on display in the Shields Library lobby through winter quarter. Looking beyond the bounds of the campus, the exhibition explores the ways in which intolerant views are communicated and disseminated through pamphlets. Paper Takes explores the particular rhetoric supporting race-based hatred, gender and sexuality bias, and political divisiveness, to better understand the dominant discourses that frame some of our most uncivil exchanges. Displaying a selection from more than 17,000 items in the leading collection of “extreme” pamphlets in the United States, this exhibition provides historical depth to our understanding of the language of hate and intolerance, traces of which remain potent today.

Read more about Paper Takes and the Walter Goldwater Radical Pamphlets collection.

• Patti Smith — Another exhibition in conjunction with the Distinguished Speakers series at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Smith's visit to the Mondavi Center is scheduled for Wednesday, May 9. Shields Library describes Smith as "an important countercultural figure" since her seminal punk album, Horses (1975) — and notes that she has been active as a poet and writer as well as a musician. Just Kids, a memoir of her days with Robert Mapplethorpe, won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Works of hers in the library collection include Seventh Heaven, Witt, Auguries of Innocence, Early Work, The Coral Sea and Ha! Ha! Houdini! (all poetry), Patti Smith Complete (lyrics) and Just Kids.

• The Spirit of New Orleans: Culture, Community, Community, Catastrophe, Construction — In conjunction with The Spirit of New Orleans series (film and music) at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The exhibition, prepared by Michael Colby, features items from library collections representing scholarship on the history, music, architecture, culture, practices and, most important, the people of New Orleans.

The Shields Library presents its exhibitions in the lobby. Regular 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. Holidays and other exceptions.

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