Move over birds of paradise, because “Birds of a Parallel Future” are spreading their wings. Technology and culture mag WIRED recently featured The Silva Field Guide to Birds of a Parallel Future — a digital video project of 18 bird species from the 31st century — by UO assistant professor of Digital Arts Rick Silva. “I did think about the specific alternate universe some — how the physical laws or evolution might have been different in a parallel dimension,” Silva told WIRED. See the mesmerizing creatures — from an infrared raptor to a flying cube of feathers — in all their digital glory at http://wkly.ws/1t0. Silva tells EW he will exhibit the birds in solo shows in New York and Dublin this fall.
The Mayor’s Art Show, which runs through Oct. 4 at the Jacobs Gallery at the Hult Center, announced the 2014 winners Aug. 22. Out of the 54 entries, the Mayor’s Choice Award went to Justin Stuck for “Hive. No. 1” and the Best of Show award went to Bren Kleinfelder for “67890.” Want to put your two cents in? Voting for the Viewer’s Choice Award is open at the gallery Friday Aug. 29 and Saturday Aug. 30; the winner will be presented with the award during First Friday ArtWalk Sept. 5.
The dog days of summer are still going and what better place to chill out than a cool museum? The UO’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History are offering free admission 11 am to 5 pm, Aug. 30-31. The museums offer free entry on all home football game weekends, so mark your calendars. Take the opportunity to see the Schnitzer’s The Human Touch — an exhibit exploring the human figure through the work of Chuck Close, Elizabeth Peyton, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Roy Lichtenstein and many more — before it closes Sept. 14. Also newly on view is Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Color Block Prints and Serigraphs of Norma Bassett Hall, the first solo exhibit of her work since 1957. Catch Explore Oregon, showcasing “300 million years of Northwest Natural History,” at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
Coburg-based artist Analee Fuentes is known for Día de los Muertos imagery but now she’s gaining a reputation for something fishy: large-format oil paintings of salmon, trout and iguanas like “Sockeye Salmon, spawning” seen on the cover. Fuentes tells EW that she worked on a fishing boat in Kodiak, Alaska, in the ’70s: “I was overwhelmed by their swirling colors as they made their way upstream. Salmon have continued to thread their migratory paths into my Oregon veins where I believe them to be unfathomable and sacred creatures.”