Reaves Gallery : Gregg Cassin - Crowned With Thorns.

Comment by AB: Themes of life, death, sickness, suffering, religion, and oppression permeate the intense contempletive observational mixed media and collage work of Gregg Cassin.

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Gallery 16 : Carol Selter - The Personal Hiking Project.

Comment by AB: Carol Selter interviews various friends and associates about hikes they'd like to take, but for some reason or another, are too busy or otherwise occupied to take them. Each "hiker" describes what he or she would like to see, hear or experience on their hypothetical hikes. Selter then custom designs hikes according to hikers' specifications, but instead of actually sending them on their hikes, she calls each one on the "day of their hike" and verbally describes the hike play-by-play, from start to finish.

She then publishes a book to commemorate each hiker's hike-- a copy of which is presented to the hiker-- with actual photographs of where the hike supposedly took place. "Hikers" report not only experiences of feeling happy and relaxed during the phone descriptions of their hikes, but also re-experience those feelings every time they page through the books of their hikes. For the exhibit, Selter displays portraits of each "hiker" alongside the books of their respective hikes and a souvenir of nature found along the hike. You, the viewer, get to experience whichever hikes you choose by paging through the books. Plus there's information about the actual location and course of each hike, so you can physically walk 'em if you're so inclined. Impressively conceived and executed-- go see.

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Jancar Jones Gallery : Bill Jenkins.

Comment by AB: The turgid palaverious explanatory's a bit bloated for my tastes, so in case you're an ordinary average person who's interested in knowing what Bill Jenkins is up to, he basically takes discarded items and makes 'em into sculptures, not by altering or changing their appearance, but rather by combining them in austere elemental incarnations. A reasonably provocative push on the evolution of the discipline. Kinda like it.

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Photo Epicenter : The Shape of Things - Paper Traditions and Transformations.

Artists: Anonymous Orphan, Francesca Bennett & Nicholas Matranga, James Bradley, Aleksandra Domanovic, Gerald Edwards III, Carlos Gutierrez, Uri Korn, Bessie Kunath, Raimundas Malasauskas, Daniel Oates-Kuhn, Post Brothers, Rick Predovic, Brad Troemel, Jon Frechette, Israel Posinov/Geoffrey Post/Post Brothers, Ray Potes, Sally Szwed, Xiaoyu Weng, Michelle Y. Hyun, more. Curated by Chris Fitzpatrick.

Comment by AB: This one's got a little bit of everything, from a working scale model volcano complete with on/off floor switch and simulated smoke (which fills the entire gallery) to a spontaneous unrehearsed reading of Grandpa Posinov's unpublished play, "The Capsule," the various roles played by anyone so inclined. And there's writing on the ceiling, sound, video, installation, complimentary artified matchbooks, painting, photography, etc etc etc. It's sorta like a Happening from the sixties or maybe creative anarchy or maybe just your basic essential unadulterated art party. Whatever it is, it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

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Project One Gallery : Chor Boogie - Romanticism Solo.

Comment by AB: Spray-paint virtuoso Chor Boogie is without question one of the best urban artists around, decidedly expanding and advancing conventional concepts of grafitti and grafitti-based art. Whether he paints huge or tiny, the upshot's invariably an aesthetic treat. Plus there's a performance starring two "live goddesses," covered with paint and not much else, in the throes of choreographic fervor.

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Edo Salon : Alicia Goode - New Work.

Comment by AB: Alicia Goode presents a twisty creative take on the arts of taxidermy, mainly in the manner of Victorian shadowbox dioramas. For the medically inclined, she offers a taxidermized heart. For the animal rights activists in the audience, Goode uses only birds and animals that die of natural causes that she either finds or has given to her.

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Addendum:

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