New this fall in campus museums: fashion from the inside out; an installation that puts the viewer in the middle of a poetic and visual narrative about humanity’s history and future; and a mix of graphics, comics, science fiction and game play, for engagement and thought about Indigenous futures and possibilities.

THE SLANT STEP

Exhibition openings are scheduled next week and the week after, starting with the Design Museum’s Shape Up: Case Studies in Fashion Making, Monday (Sept. 23), the first day of fall quarter. Three days later, Thursday, Sept. 26, the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art holds its Fall Season Celebration, launching the NEW ERA installation and also highlighting two continuing exhibitions. The C.N. Gorman Museum’s fall exhibition, Indigenous Futurisms: Explorations in Art and Play, will open Wednesday, Oct. 2.

In addition, a wine exhibition makes its debut today (Sept. 17) at Shields Library: A Tale of Two Tastings, including the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the 1976 blind tasting that put California wines on the global map.

Admission to all exhibitions — and the Manetti Shrem Museum’s Fall Season Celebration — is free and open to the public. Locations and hours (or links) are included in the summaries below.

Design Museum

• Shape Up: Case Studies in Fashion Making — With clothing from Africa, Asia and Central America, and western garments from the UC Davis Jo Ann C. Stabb Design Collection, this exhibition reveals the hidden structures, patterns and shaping methods that underlie fashion creation, by turning the garments inside out. The exhibition’s three sections ­— “Tailored Silhouettes,” “Untrimmed Contours” and “New Dimensions” — acknowledge the long history of artisanship behind the shape of clothing and how this artisanship has influenced design practice. Sept. 23-Dec. 8. Design Museum, 124 Cruess Hall. Regular hours: noon-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2-4 p.m. Sunday (except Sunday, Oct. 14, when the museum will be closed).

Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art will host its Fall Season Celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, amid the new NEW ERA installation and two continuing exhibitions, including ColorForm, sculptures and drawings by UC Davis alumna Kathy Butterly. Outside of the galleries, the celebration will include music by the globally inspired folk quartet Cloud Hats, art activities inspired by  Butterly’s ceramics, and snacks. Plus, at 6 p.m., an artist talk with Butterly, in conversation with art historian Jenelle Porter.

• NEW FOR FALL: The West Coast premiere of NEW ERA by Los Angeles artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken, whose multichannel video installation uses sound and moving images to explore ideas of technology and connection in the contemporary world. NEW ERA is housed within a specially constructed hexagonal mirrored pavilion that creates an immersive experience, transforming viewers into collaborators. NEW ERA debuted in New York last year and also has been exhibited in Europe and Asia. Sept. 26-June 14.
• CONTINUING: Landscape Without Boundaries — Rooted in the ground around Davis itself — a blend of nature, agriculture and industry in the Central Valley, San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta and North Bay region — this exhibition explores the mix of approaches to the idea of landscape, and includes significant works by Robert Arneson, Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Mike Henderson, Judith Linhares, Gladyss Nilsson, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Martín Ramírez, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley. Through Dec. 15.
• CONTINUING: ColorForm — Butterly, who received a Master of Fine Arts at UC Davis in 1990, stands out among modern and contemporary sculptors for her personal yet accessible ceramic language of line, form and color. This exhibition, her first retrospective, focuses on the last 10 years, charting the evolution of her sensibility, skills and philosophical stance, which have strong historical roots in the work of Viola Frey, Ken Price and Arneson. Through Dec. 29.

Read more in this UC Davis news release.

The Manetti Shrem Museum is located at the campus’s south entry. Fall hours (starting Tuesday, Sept. 24): noon-6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; noon-9 p.m. Thursday; and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

C.N. Gorman Museum

• Indigenous Futurisms: Explorations in Art and Play — “Indigenous futurisms,” as Grace Dillon terms it, envision Native futures, Indigenous hopes, and dreams recovered by rethinking the past in a new framework. Visual artists explore graphics, science fiction, gaming and superheroes, while game designers engage with language, role play, strategy and cooperative play to create new worlds in computer, tabletop and card games. See the museum website for gaming events, participating artists and more information. Oct. 2-Jan. 31. C.N Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Regular hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.

New at Shields Library

• A Tale of Two Tastings — Get a glimpse behind the scenes of the Judgment of Paris through items from two collections newly acquired by the UC Davis Library. The exhibit also sheds light on an earlier tasting in which a 1957 Hanzell Chardonnay bested a 1955 Corton-Charlemagne. Today (Sept. 17)-Feb. 23. Shields Library (look for the exhibition in the lobby, to the left of the main staircase). Library hours.

Other library exhibits (including online)

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