THE MIND OF ERIC FISCHL

Two print portfolios by contemporary artist Eric Fischl will be shown in the University Art Museum, Cal State Long Beach, in a show titled “Eric Fischl Scenes Before the Eye: The Evolution of ‘Year of the Drowned Dog’ and ‘Floating Islands,’ ” opening Oct. 21 and running through Nov. 30.

The exhibition offers viewers an opportunity for an in-depth examination of the artist’s working and thought processes, the origins of his narratives and the literary and historical sources of his imagery.

Included will be preliminary studies and working proofs as well as finished color etchings and unique-state prints.

Fischl’s large-scale works explore middle-class American society from a unique viewpoint. Using a narrative format, the images portray intensely private situations, private moments or characters possessed of an ambiguous or casual sexual morality.

He questions accepted social values, demanding involvement by viewers suddenly forced to become witnesses, voyeurs or participants in his stories. In an interview with museum director Constance Glenn, published in the exhibition’s catalogue, Fischl says: “I’m trying to build a situation to its most poignant moment, the one where all of its possibilities are exposed. . . . It’s frozen just short of a resolved action. What I’m doing is creating a situation in which the audience can then have a revelation. They can have revelation by the way they play it back to themselves. It’s about re-creation.” The artist will present a public lecture on Oct. 21 at 8:30 p.m. in the University Theater. Ticket information: (213) 498-5526.

The Los Angeles Task Force on the Arts, appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to report on the local state of the arts, is holding a series of public meetings in the sixth-floor auditorium of the Los Angeles Design Center, 433 S. Spring St. The discussion on Monday at 2 p.m. focuses on “Enhancing L.A.’s Support Structure for the Arts.”

On Oct. 13 at 4 p.m. the topic is “Creating New Sources of Financing for the Arts”; on Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m., “Formulating Objectives for L.A.’s Cultural Plan.” Parking is available in the Design Center garage. For information, call Laurie Garris at (213) 626-2787.

The Newport Harbor Art Museum has generated a series of ancillary events in conjunction with “The Second Newport Biennial: The Bay Area” exhibition which runs through Nov. 23.

Today at 3 p.m., Mark van Proyen, artist, art critic and essayist for the exhibition catalogue, will discuss “The Bay Area: Culture or Sub-Culture?”

On Friday at 8:15 a.m., the exhibition’s organizer and NHAM’s associate curator Anne Ayres will discuss the individual merits of each of the 12 artists she selected for the current biennial. A continental breakfast, at 7:15 a.m. in the museum’s cafe, will precede the Ayres lecture.

Tony Labat will present a selection of his videotapes, including his most recent, “Mayami,” produced as part of the “Open Channels” series of the Long Beach Museum of Art, on Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. Labat, who emigrated to the United States from Cuba, makes tapes reflecting on issues of displacement and alienation.

Recent videotapes by San Francisco artists Doug Hall, Jeanne Finley, Labat and collaborators Aron Ranen and Kevin Bender will be screened on Nov. 2 at 3 p.m.

Admission price for these events is $3 for museum members, students, seniors and the military and $5 for non-members. (For breakfast add $5 to the price of the lecture; prepaid reservations are required by Wednesday.) Information: (714) 759-1122.

“Suzanne Hellmuth and Jock Reynolds Photographs and Documents, 1975-1985” will be at the UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery on Tuesday through Nov. 1. Original art and photographic documentation surveys work of the past decade by two Washington artists who are active in performance art, photography and site-specific installations.

The artists question the nature of visual information, its manipulation and contextural use, which in turn affect viewers’ perceptions. “In transforming the meaning of photographs, we emphasize values pertaining to human presence in natural and human-made aspects of the environment,” they say in a prepared statement.

Hellmuth received her BA from Oberlin College and her MA from San Francisco State University; Reynolds earned a BA from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA from UC Davis. He is currently executive director of the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.

The artists will discuss their work on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the gallery, just before an opening reception set for 7 to 9 p.m. Information: (714) 856-6610.

An exhibition of works in traditional and experimental graphic media, including computer graphics, xerography and other image-transfer techniques (but excluding traditional photography) is being held at the Palos Verdes Art Center under the sponsorship of the center and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.

The exhibition, titled “Print In/Print Out,” opens Friday and runs through Nov. 15. It was juried by artist/teacher Connor Everts, a co-founder of the printmaking society.

Information: (213) 541-2479.

Deadline for entries to the “ArtQuest ‘87” competitive video show is Nov. 20.

Entry fee is $6 per slide with a minimum of three slides required.

A total of $5,750 in cash awards is offered. The show will consist of selected slides on a videotape, initially shown in May at the Art Institute of Boston and next fall at Cal State Northridge.

“ArtQuest ’86 Video Exhibit” will continue touring until early 1987.

Among jurors this year are: Lewis Sharp, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Patterson Sims, Whitney Museum of American Art; Deborah Wye, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Mary Jane Jacob, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Kathy Smith, Art Institute of Boston; Elizabeth Smith, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Louise Lewis, Cal State Northridge, Art Gallery.

For information or entry forms, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to : ArtQuest ‘87, 2265 Westwood Blvd. No. 1240, Los Angeles 90064, or call: (213) 399-9305.

Nancy Doll, director of Tufts University’s Gallery Eleven and curator of the University’s art collections since 1980, has joined the Santa Barbara Museum of Art staff as curator of modern art.