LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL TO CELEBRATE NEW CAMPUS

A series of art events is planned in celebration of the formal dedication of Loyola Law School’s new campus, designed by Frank O. Gehry & Associates.

Gehry will deliver a slide lecture on his work at 8 p.m. Friday in Loyola’s Merryfield Hall, 1441 W. Olympic Blvd.

“The Spiritual Eye: Religious Imagery in Contemporary Los Angeles Art,” an exhibition in the Law School Gallery, also opens Friday with a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The theme of the show ties in with Loyola’s Jesuit identity, though the range of art in “The Spiritual Eye” is broadly ecumenical.

Ellie Blankfort organized the presentation of works by 37 artists, including works by Lita Albuquerque, Carlos Almaraz, Craig Antrim, Chris Burden, Peter Hess, Robert Gil de Montes, Peter Liashkov, Jim Morphesis, Bruce Richards, Leo Robinson, Betye Saar and Ruth Weisberg.

Guided tours of the school, offered during the Friday reception, will call attention to Gehry’s architecture, Loyola’s permanent art collection and two recently completed art-and-architecture collaborations: a mural, “Fall of Icarus,” designed by Jim Morphesis and painted by Kent Twitchell, and a stained glass window, “Celebration,” designed by Michael Todd and executed by Douglas Gibbs.

“Painting as Landscape: Views of American Modernism 1920-1984,” at Caltech’s Baxter Art Gallery, through May 5, presents works by 21 artists selected to illustrate the idea that landscape has had a marked impact on American abstract painting.

The show was organized by Baxter and the Parrish Art Museum in South Hampton, N.Y., under the direction of guest curator Klaus Kertess, Robert Lehman Curator at the Parrish Art Museum. Beginning with early modernist pieces by Arthur Dove and John Marin, the show chronologically traces landscape-inspired abstractions with works by Augustus Tack, Mark Tobey, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning, James Brooks, Joan Mitchell, Norman Bluhm, Michael Goldberg, Richard Diebenkorn, Brice Mrden, Julian Schnabel, Anselm Kiefer, Bill Jensen, Terry Winters, Louise Fishman, Cora Cohen, Stephen Mueller, Louisa Chase and Carroll Dunham.

Baxter Gallery Director Jay Belloli will speak on “Painting As Landscape” and new contemporary trends at 8 p.m., April 18 in Baxter Lecture Hall. Information: (818) 356-4371.

An invitational exhibition surveying the broad scope of activity among relatively young and little recognized artists in the San Diego area is hosted by the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, Saturday through April 28.

“A San Diego Exhibition: Forty-two Emerging Artists” presents paintings, sculpture, photography, performance, installation, film and fashion by artists whose work has not been previously exhibited at the museum.

Painters represented are: painters Wick Alexander, Richard J. Baker, Merryl Berner Cicourel, Robert Glen Ginder, Raul M. Guerrero, Dietrich Jenny, Nancy Kay, Mark-Elliott Lugo, Roy David Rogers, Ellen Schreibman-Salk , Michael William Schnorr, Ernest R. Silva, Peter Stearns and Gillian Theobald.

Sculptors are: David Avalos, Kenneth Capps, Gary David Ghirardi, Jay S. Johnson, Jens Morrison and Deborah Small. Frank D. Cole, Louis Hock, Mario Lara, Roy McMakin and James Skalman provide installations. Performance artists are Philip-Dimitri Galas and a group called Poyesis Genetica (Sara-Jo Berman, Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Luke Theodore Morrison).

Photographers: Walter Cotten, Harley Gaber, Suda House, Fred Lonidier, Philipp Scholz Rittermann and Philip A. Steinmetz. Film: Beth Accomando, Babette Mangolte and Kevin Morrisey. Video: Carlos Anzaldua and Joyan Saunders. Fashion: Margaret Honda and Carol Vidstrand.

The exhibition catalog includes essays by San Diego art writers Jeff Kelley, David Lewison, Elise Miller and Eileen Sondak and curators Lynda Forsha and Burnett Miller.