September’s First Friday shows continue a mix of in-person and virtual art openings and events.
Live opening receptions will be held for Liz Bowen’s work at the Art Shop Gallery, a show by Jennifer Joyner at Grace Ridge Brewery and a closing reception for Desiree Hagen and Kayla Bloom’s show at the Homer Council on the Arts. Hagen and Bloom do a reception outdoors — weather permitting — of their paper art, creating a large work using paper written or drawn upon over the exhibit by visitors.
Virtual artists talks will be held at Bunnell Street Arts Center for a new show by Hal Gage and Rika Mouw. The Pratt Museum’s “Entangled” exhibit features readings by local writers Marilyn Sigman and Nancy Lord. The authors read from their works and also discuss how natural history collections exist at the intersections of science, stories, and art.
Held over for September is Abbey Ullen’s exhibit, “Feathered Friends,” at Ptarmigan Arts. There is no First Friday reception, but the gallery is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday.
Art Shop Gallery
202 W. Pioneer Ave.
Beaded Stones, Silver and Dichroic glass by Liz Bowen
4-6:30 p.m., Friday Opening Reception
Since 1988, Liz Bowen, born in Anchorage, Alaska, has been making her jewelry line, Glacier Glass. Each piece is hand cut and sandblasted to make beautiful dichroic glass jewelry. She has since then expanded her jewelry lines to Aurora Fire & Bella Bijoux, which is beaded stones and silver. Bowen draws her inspiration from the beauty of Alaska, the Native art of the Southeast and the animals that she has encountered in her life in Alaska.
Bunnell Street Arts Center
106 W. Bunnell Ave.
Art by Hal Gage and Rika Mouw
6 p.m., Friday artists talk via Zoom and Facebook Live
1-3 p.m. Saturday, Documentation and Installation of Land Acknowledgement Action
September’s exhibit shows the work of Anchorage photographer Hal Gage and Homer artist Rika Mouw.
In his exhibit examining the beauty and intricacy of glaciers, Gage writes, “Over eons, glaciers travel from mountain tops in their slow, unrelenting march to the seas. Grinding rock to powder and carving valleys in their wake, they create the landscapes we see today. These ‘rivers of ice’ scour rock and soil from the mountain tops and valley walls carrying that debris in its icy grip. At the terminus moraine all these elements commingle, suspended in the melt waters of the receding glacier.
“There is beauty here, but these intrinsic abstract forms are indirect evidence of the global ramifications of an alarming trend. Their swirls and sinews change by the millisecond. Patterns in the flowing mud and silt are the vanishing fingerprint of the glacier. These transitory images are all that is left as the ice disappears and the waters dry up—leaving just a hint of the glacier that once was.”
Of her work featuring mussel shells she has collected on the north side of Kachemak Bay at Mud Bay, Mouw writes, “Indigenous people have subsisted on and stewarded this place for thousands of years. Non-human beings have lived and thrived here for even longer. In experiencing this particular shore, I reflect on the passage of time, the process of never-ending change this meeting place has witnessed. I consider myself a current steward of this amazing spot on Earth. Watching this shore, these waters, this landscape, day after day, season after season, year after year, I have the privilege to witness and know this place intimately. Through my art making, I have been on a journey of inquiry and connection with this enchanting place at a deeper and deeper level.
“Eroding storm berms along this beach expose old buried or partially exposed mussel shells. … Through these mussel shell assemblages I reflect on the time I’ve spent on this edge of land where it meets the sea with the ebbs and flows of the tide. I’ve attempted to give these shells a sense of life and movement, the currents of the water, the texture of it when touched by the wind or when waters of different temperatures and salinity collide. I’ve attempted to show the wind itself, the vast schools of salmon that live and feed in these waters and the poetic flights of the shorebirds who come to feed here in the spring.”
On Saturday, Melissa Shaginoff will return to Homer for installation of the signs artists created together in August for a land acknowledgement action. Videographer Hanna Craig will document and record the experience.
Grace Ridge Brewery
3388 B. Street off Ocean Drive
New work by Jennifer Joyner
5-7 p.m., Friday Opening Reception
Local mixed media artist Jennifer Joyner presents a collection of pieces for World Art Week this September. Art and sculpture inspired by the many beautiful aspects of Alaska are represented in metal, drift wood, paint and pencil.
Homer Council on the Arts
355 W. Pioneer Ave.
Reflect Respond Rebuild, art by Desiree Hagen and Kayla Bloom
5-7 p.m., Friday Closing Reception
Artists Desiree Hagen and Kayla Bloom hold a closing reception for their show, “Reflect Respond Rebuild.” There will be live music outdoors, weather permitting. The artists plan to do a demonstration (also outdoors) during that time, making a 3-foot-by-5-foot sheet of paper using the torn bits of paper submitted by the public throughout the duration of the exhibit as part of their Grief Paper project. Of their project they write: “An element of our mission is to provide paper to the community. The paper we are providing is made from our old sketchbook pages, writings we no longer resonate with, fibers to be recycled, memories and artifacts of deceased loved ones.”
During their exhibit, they encouraged visitors to rip the paper into 1-inch or 2-inch squares, take the pieces of paper and write whatever they wanted on it, including writings and sketches they wished “to let go, release and process.”
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
471 E. Pioneer Ave.
Feathered Friends, paintings by Abbey Ullen
Ptarmigan Arts is continuing to show its August exhibit, “Feathered Friends,” by Abby Ullen. She writes that birds have been a constant in her life, and a reminder of hope. While working on these pieces she was reminded of the times in her life that feathered friends have given her assurance. In this show she highlighted some of her favorite friends and tried to evoke a feeling of hopefulness and joy through bold colors and expressive mark making. Some works are done with oil to achieve the amazing action and textures that she has always admired about birds.
Ullen has been a lifelong lover of art and started painting as a young girl. She is self taught, and in 2018 she was exhibted at the Kenai Peninsula Emerging Artist show and has been involved in creating local community murals. Her current work can be viewed in several businesses in Soldotna. Ullen works in a variety of media, including acrylic, ink and paper. View more of her art on Instagram @abbeyulen.
For the safety of artists and customers, there will not be a First Friday reception. The gallery is currently open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday.
Pratt Museum
3779 Bartlett St.
A Night of Entanglement, readings by Marilyn Sigman and Nancy Lord
7-8 p.m. virtual event
The Pratt Museum holds “A Night of Entanglement,” a virtual event featuring readings from Marilyn Sigman and Nancy Lord, and a deeper look into its Entangled exhibit. That exhibit asks, “What might be some of the consequences of widely sharing new ecological discoveries in the present day? How can we expand our ideas of collecting to be more environmentally sustainable?”
Sigman and Lord read excerpts from their books and lead a discussion around how natural history collections exist at the intersections of science, stories, and art. To join the virtual event, visit and RSVP at www.facebook.com/events/325083598732273 .
Art by Jennifer Joyner from her show at Grace Ridge Brewery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Grace Ridge Brewery)
Art by Abby Ullen from a show opening Friday, Aug. 7, 2020, at Ptarmigan Arts in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Ptarmigan Arts)
Art by Jennifer Joyner from her show at Grace Ridge Brewery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Grace Ridge Brewery)
Artists Desiree Hagen and Kayla Bloom invited visitors to write on pieces of paper at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska and then deposit them in a box to be used in an art installation on Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)
Art from a show by Desiree Hagen and Kayla Bloom at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)
Jewelry by Liz Bowen from her show at the Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy of Art Shop Gallery)
One of Rika Mouw’s pieces featuring mussel shells at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy of Bunnell Street Arts Center)
One of photographer Hal Gage’s glacier photographs from his exhibit at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy of Bunnell Street Arts Center)
Artists Desiree Hagen and Kayla Bloom invited visitors to write on pieces of paper at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, and then deposit them in a box to be used in an art installation on Friday, Sept. 4. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)
