Bunnell Street Arts Center
106 W. Bunnell Ave.
On Hockey, sculpture and other works by Michael Conti
5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 6 p.m., artists talk
Anchorage artist Michael Conti’s “On Hockey” exhibit includes wall pieces, sculptural objects and video. He explores symbolism and cultural significance as a northern sport contrasting grace and violence, blood and ice, the professional sports industry and cultural obsolescence. His installation features a series of paintings about Derek Boogaard, cast hockey pucks containing wisdom teeth, bottle caps and pain killers, and an extended hockey stick. Conti notes that “almost entirely colonized by white culture, hockey was invented by Canada’s First Nation people and depends on ice, which is quickly disappearing from our planet.” The show also includes an altered air hockey table.
Homer Council on the Arts
344 W. Pioneer Ave.
Aesthetic Dichotomy, by Lukas Easton, 5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Homer High School graduate and now University of Alaska Anchorage arts student Lukas Easton shows his paintings and ceramic art. On his paintings, he writes, “I do not paint for a final product. I paint for the process. It is in the many layers of paint that I am able to process my internal world and express it in a way that I understand.” Of his ceramics, he writes, “Ceramics is what feeds me. Ceramics is the input, where painting is the output. I am fed by the aesthetic beauty and inspired by the endless possibilities that ceramics has to offer.”
Homer Public Library
500 Hazel Ave.
Photographs by Susan Johnson, 5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Staged reading of “Fahrenheit 451,” 6 p.m., Saturday
Photographer Susan Johnson’s images from her stay at the Fowler Dune Shack, one of the few remaining beach shacks on the Cape Cod National Seashore, Mass., may look familiar. Like Homer, Provincetown is a fishing and arts community at the end of the road. The end of Cape Cod in Massachusetts has long been associated with seafood, fishing, marine wildlife and tourists. Like coastal Alaska, it, too, is made up of small communities whose populations swell in the summer, then shrink back down in the fall, with the locals hunkering in for the long harsh winter. Her show is on exhibit through March 30.
On Saturday, as part of the Homer Public Library’s Big Read of Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” Pier One Theatre presents a reading of the play based on Bradbury’s novel. Similar to the novel, it includes new dialog by several characters. Erin Hollowell, coordinator of the Friends of the Homer Public Library, said, “Under the leadership of Lance Peterson, the actors and actresses of the Pier One Theatre truly provide a performance that enriches a person’s reading of the novel. It’s not necessary to have read Fahrenheit 451 before attending the production. In fact, we’ve scheduled the staged reading so early during the Big Read in the hopes that attending the performance will entice more people to read the book.”
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
471 E. Pioneer Ave.
Faces, art by various artists, 5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Ptarmigan Arts shows the works of its members with their “Faces” exhibit. There are spooky faces, animal faces, clock faces and the beautiful faces of children that are painted, beaded, photographed and molded with fish skins, and more. There also are a few surprises, as some of the artists display faces that may be outside their normal media. Contributing artists include Gary Lyon, Jean Steele, Carolyn Seymour, Ruby Haigh, Ted Heuer, Debbie Fanatia, Mossy Kilcher, Linda Skelton, Kathi Drew, Cindy Nelson and Kathie Baldwin.
