ARTIST PRESENTATION OCT. 16

• Gyre: Regarding a Tragedy of the Commons — This exhibition by Robert Gaylor addresses the accumulation of plastic waste known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" in the North Pacific Gyre (a giant, circular current on the ocean surface). The exhibition comprises two parts: photographs and an arrangement of flotsam objects gathered from the North Pacific Gyre, and a video installation titled Kamilo Twisted Waters, a moving mandala that reflects the fouling of the oceans. Through Dec. 2, Design Museum, Cruess Hall. Artist presentation, followed by reception, 1-3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16.

The Design Museum's website describes Gaylor as an artist, curator and designer who has exhibited his work in multiple museums and art spaces since 1963. "His years as an artist and industrial designer, and, of course, as a consumer, have given him a unique perspective on our 'throw-away' culture."

This will be the first exhibition in the Design Museum's new home at ther main entrance to Cruess Hall. Regular hours: noon-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 2-4 p.m. Sunday.

THREE-GALLERY TOUR

The Nelson ARTfriends announced a tour of three galleries: the Nelson at UC Davis, and the Pence and Natsoulas galleries in downtown Davis.

Behing the Scenes: Three Gallery Walk is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 15, starting at 10 a.m. at the Nelson, where the organizers said Renny Pritikin, the gallery director, will lead a tour and answer questions.

Next stop is the Pence, at 11 a.m., where Natalie Pence will take the Behind the Scenes group through the various galleries and explain their relationship to art education.

The last stop is the Natsoulas Gallery, for a tour and talk starting at noon.

The Behind the Scenes organizers said light refreshments will be served at the Natsoulas Gallery.

The cost is $20 for Nelson ARTfriends members, $25 for nonmembers and $15 for students. people planning to attend are asked to arrange reservations by Monday (Oct. 10), by contacting Katrina Wong, (530) 752-8500 or kliwong@ucdavis.edu.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

• Of Corset — Corsets as undergarment, outerwear, costume and art object, by Kaleigh Brady, Clinton Gibson, Sarah Beth Rawls, Laura Reyes, Jennifer Rutherford and Carrie Tamber, all of the Craft Center staff. Through Oct. 28, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. 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. Closing reception for the artists, 5:30-7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28.

• Birds: A Kinetic Installation — Does the term "kinetic sculpture" fill your mind with images of clanking metal gears or corny water-driven fountain elements? Chico MacMurtrie has made his share of drum-pounding giant robots over the years. But, with Birds, he offers a different vision: a lyrical, even meditative exploration of the flapping of wings — a dozen pairs of them. Driven by compressed air, the fabric wings slowly inflate, flap and deflate over a period of minutes, in eerie grace and silence. Through Dec. 11, Nelson Gallery, Nelson Hall. Regular hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, and Fridays by appointment.

• Double Vision: New Works by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie — A collaboration of the C.N. Gorman Museum, the Great Plains Art Museum and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, this exhibition poses an intervention with the photographic archive. Based on historical images from the late 1800s by Laton Alton Huffman and William Henry Jackson, held in the collections of the Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Tsinhnahjinnie creates works that serve as a remembrance of the bison, a visual confrontation and an appropriation into a Native American context. Through Dec. 2, C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. Artist and curator lecture, 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, with a reception to follow. 

AT SHIELDS LIBRARY

• Campus Community Book Project: Celebrate the Freedom to Read — The General Library Committee on Diversity assembled this exhibition in connection with this year's book project selection, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, an award-winning young adult novel and one of the most challenged books of 2010.

The exhibition comprises classic and contemporary works of fiction that share with Alexie’s novel the distinction of being either challenged or banned in the United States.

Says the committee: "The best literature provokes discussion and challenges us to open our minds to the diversity of this common and uncommon thing we call life.' Our individual experiences are both unique and universal. Author Sherman Alexie’s semiautobiographical novel brilliantly captures this paradox."

• Jonathan Franzen — Highlighting the author's work, including The Corrections, Freedom and other novels. This exhibition aligns with Franzen's appearance in the Mondavi Center's Distinguished Speakers series. His talk, On Autobiography and Fiction Writing, is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8.

• 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. 

• 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 Franzen exhibition runs through Oct. 10; the Campus Community Book Project and The Spirit of New Orleans exhibitions are designated for fall quarter, and The Ground Beneath Our Feet for fall and winter quarters. All exhibitions are in the Shields Library 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.

OFF-CAMPUS

• Premeditation: Meditations on Capital Punishment — California State University, Sacramento, draws from its University Archives and Special Collections for this exhibition of works by the artist Malaquais Montoya, professor emeritus in UC Davis' Department of Chicana/o Studies. Oct. 11-Nov. 19, Gallery Annex, University Library, Sacramento State, 6000 J St. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 

The Premeditation: Meditations on Capital Punishment exhibition sponsors include the UC Davis Department of Chicana/o Studies and Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, or TANA, the department-run community art center in Woodland.

The exhibition is a companion piece to a presentation by Montoya biographer Terezita Romo, former curator of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco. Romo's presentation is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, at the library.

• 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.