Visual Arts : Brown’s ‘Stains’ will dazzle

New York artist Brad Brown is in Spokane for tonight’s opening of his one-person exhibition at Gonzaga University’s Jundt Art Museum.

“Brad Brown: Getting Used to Using Each Other” features new paintings, drawings and prints, as well as elements of his decade-long body of work, “Look Stains (Fragments and Notations).”

Brown creates drawings with charcoal, graphite, tea and olive oil. He smudges, rubs and doodles figurative and abstract elements.

His “Look Stains” project includes more than a thousand small paintings, drawings and collages created and reworked over more than a 10-year period.

“These pieces encompass both ends of the art-making spectrum, displaying intense deliberation as well as chance and accident,” according to an item about the artist on the Web site of San Francisco’s Haines Gallery.

Brown’s reconfigurations and new works are on view through Dec. 13.

A free public reception is tonight from 6 to 7:15 p.m. at the museum, followed by a free public lecture by Brown at 7:30 p.m. in the Jundt Auditorium.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Orosco, Larson at Prichard

“Nathan Orosco: El Norte” and “Stuart Larson: Liquid Scans & Dead Technology” are opening Friday in the University of Idaho’s Prichard Art Gallery in downtown Moscow.

The artists are “intimately engaged in the issues and ideas that are shaping the world at this moment,” says gallery director Roger H.D. Rowley in a news release.

Orosco, a Texas native, earned a master of fine arts degree from Washington State University in 2001.

Rowley says his work, “whether using specific visual references to the Mexican-American border or metaphorical boundaries, explores the real yet fabricated divisions that separate and define the modes of communication about and around the border.”

Larson looks closely at how the world sees itself through technology.

“The functionality of everything from beauty products to passenger aircraft is determined through computer modeling, computer imaging and computer testing,” says Rowley. “By modifying devices meant for one form of imaging to capture different kinds of subject matter Stuart turns the technology on itself and toward the substances of our daily lives.”

Larson is an assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Houston at Clear Lake.

An artists’ reception is Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. in the free gallery 414/416 S. Main St. in Moscow. The work is up through Dec. 2. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For additional information call (208) 885-3586.

Anne Frank photographs

“Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album,” an exhibit of 70 black-and-white photographs taken by Otto Frank of his daughters, Anne and Margot, opens today at the Human Rights Education Center in Coeur d’Alene.

The series of personal photographs “gives a tender rendering of family life before their lives were eclipsed by legitimized barbarity,” according to the show’s publicity material.

A reception begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by a presentation, “How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing,” at 7 by Whitworth College psychology professor James Waller.

The Human Rights Education Center is located at 414 1/2 W. Mullan Road, on the corner of Mullan and Northwest Boulevard and adjacent to Coeur d’Alene City Park.

The traveling exhibit is up though Nov. 18 and can be viewed Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

‘Sacred Grounds’

“From A Collector’s Attic: Western Memories,” featuring a number of Western-style prints, photographs and paintings from the collection of Dr. Reta Gilbert, is on display at On Sacred Grounds: Coffee, Tea, & Specialty Shoppe in Valleyford.

A public reception is Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. with live music by acoustic guitarist Michael Robinson. Gilbert, of Spokane, will talk at 2 p.m. on “Buying When One Collects.” The work is up through Nov. 13.

On Sacred Grounds is located at 12212 E. Palouse Highway (corner of Palouse and Madison) across from the Valleyford Community Church. Call (509) 747-6294 for directions or information.

‘Motorcycling Scotland’

A portfolio of color images by Doug Roberts, Spokane motorcyclist and photographer, is on display through Nov. 18 in the street level gallery in the Spokane Downtown Public Library at Main Avenue and Lincoln Street.

The photographs were taken during a 2,000-mile motorcycle ride through Scotland and England and include expansive views of lush landscapes, old architecture and medieval castles.

For library hours call (509) 444-5300. For information about the tour go to www.dadsgonebad.com/Scotland_Ride.html.

Nibarger’s watercolors

Lamont Nibarger, an emerging artist in his mid-60s, is having his first show at the Pacific Garden Designs Studio, 1508 S. Chestnut Ave. in Vinegar Flats.

“His images are beautiful watercolor studies in reflection of people dear to him, places he has visited and explored, experiences and emotions,” says show coordinator Jennifer Compau.

Nibarger’s grandson Logan Heftel will provide live music for the public opening Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. The work will be up through October.

Art ala Carte

“Collaborative Art: How Glass Melted Two Visions into a Focus on Palouse Grass” is the subject of next Thursday’s Art ala Carte brown-bag lecture at noon in Bundy Reading Room in Avery Hall on Washington State University’s Pullman campus.

Hear what artists Gina Murray and Louise Colson have to say about their joint artistic journey since 2005.

Colson has been fusing glass into sculpture since 1980, while Murray has been carving stone and wood since 1985. A mutual interest in glass caused their paths to cross last year.

“Ideas flew and new collaborative projects were born,” says Art ala Carte coordinator Gail Siegel.

Other galleries

“Glassblower Robert Swidergal is the featured artist through Nov. 30 at the Art Works Gallery, 214 N. First Ave. in downtown Sandpoint. For more information call (208) 263-2642 or see www.sandpointartworks.com.