Fireworks ring in new round of First Friday exhibits

If you’re not too tired from celebrating the Fourth of July, head out for First Friday and check out a new collection of art on display around town. Receptions are from 5-8 p.m. Friday unless otherwise noted.

Stop by Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main Ave., to see “Thinking About Stephen Hawking,” an exhibit of experimental ceramics and manipulated photography by Vida Vida. This is Vida Vida’s first exhibition in 10 years and first solo exhibition in Spokane.

Watercolorist Stan Miller will have work on display at Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave. On Friday, Lyle Morse will perform, and Beacon Hill’s bistro supper will be offered. Barrister’s wines will be available by the glass or bottle. 5-10 p.m.

This month, Terrain, 304 W. Pacific Ave., will host “Signs of Feelings,” a collection of Katharine Spilker’s recent work. Spilker uses natural and found materials in her sculptures to express the “contentions found in human feeling,” our need for connection and the internal and external forces that complicate that need.

Stop by Object Space, 1818 ½ E. Sprague Ave., to see Benjamin Heiken’s “Sad Piles From a Dirty World,” a collection of new and selected works. Heiken uses dark humor to explore “the human condition in relation to a world of liminality.”

Visit Avenue West Gallery to see work from guest artist Katie Frey. The gallery also is hosting the River Ridge Association of Fine Arts Summer Juried Membership Show this month. Frey works in different mediums but is currently focusing on acrylic palette knife painting and mixed-media texture landscapes. For Frey, “inspiration and texture are synonymous.” Because of the holiday, the artist reception is 5-8 p.m. July 12 instead of First Friday.

Berserk Bar, 125 S. Stevens St., will feature works from Elizabeth Reichenberger. 6-11 p.m.

Stop by Core Pilates and Wellness, 1174 W. Summit Parkway, to see work by Maya Kelly, who practices the “zen of photography” by bringing presence, intuition and feeling into each work.

Craftsman Cellars, 1194 W. Summit Parkway, will host works by Judy Minter, who layers luxury finishes and patinas to canvas artwork using plasters, paints and mica powders. She also creates travel photos and paper mache sculptures. 2-9 p.m.

The work of photographers Marcos Sauceda and Austin Florendo will be on display at Indaba Coffee Roasters, 518 W. Riverside Ave. 7-9 p.m.

Iron Goat Brewing, 1302 W. Second Ave., will host work by Lisa Marie Brown, who works in oil paint and watercolor media. In her paintings, she explores imagery found in nature, both in representational and abstract ways.

Stop by Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St., for the Cryptid Prints, a look at work from 10 Inland Northwest-based print artists: Thom Caraway, Ethan Coy, Brian Deemi, Derrick Freeland, Reinaldo Gil Zambrano, Dustin Hall, Tiffany Patterson, Kameron Simpson, Bethany Taylor and Ashley Rae Vaughn. The artists were asked to re-interpret a cryptid from a sketch designed by another participant.

Celebrate the soft opening of La Resistance Art Gallery, 1816 E. Sprague Ave., during First Friday, and take in the group show featuring work from Jason Bagge, Stacy Epley, Megan Holden, Connie Stout, Joseph Tomlinson, Chloe Farmin, Lauralee White, Nikai Birchler, Robert Lamonte, Owen McAuley, Isaac Denton, Ginger Oaks, Carly Haney and more. 5:30-9 p.m.

Work from Christina Villagomez will be on display at Lucky Leaf Co., 1111 W. First Ave.

Stop by Marmot Art Space, 1202 W. Summit Parkway, to see acrylics featuring Native American chiefs, women and children from emerging artist Jacob Johns, a member of the Hopi tribe in Arizona. The show also will feature work from painter Alfredo Arreguin, sculptor/professor emeritus Ruben Trejo and Whitworth art professors Gordon Wilson and Rob Fifield, Bend painter/art teacher Ken Roth, Michael Dinning, Jim Dhillon, Ric Gendron and Melissa Cole.

For three nights only, the Wonder Building, 835 N. Post St., will show a collection of work from the late Austrian artist Ernest Lothar, including paintings, drawings and pastels, presented by AS2 and Art Spirit Gallery. His style has been described as “a wonderful melding of art deco, expressionism, pre-Columbian and Asian influences.” 5-9 p.m. Friday; noon-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The Richmond Art Collective’s Richmond Gallery, 228 W. Sprague Ave., will host “Fear of Fear,” a collection of recent works by Dan McCann and Hannah Koeske. “Fear is such a prevailing issue of the day,” McCann wrote in a statement. “How you carry fear – whether in life or in art, and what you do with it – I believe in some ways can define you,” Koeske wrote.

From July 1 through Sept. 25, Chase Art Gallery in Spokane City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., will host work from Spokane painter Amanda Caldwell, fiber artist Seiko A. Purdue and oil painter Kenneth Susynski. Because of the Fourth of July holiday, there will be no artist reception this month, though all three artists will be at a First Friday reception in September. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.