The ever changing and evolving Homer First Friday circuit sees two new venues offering shows this week. With K-Bay Caffe’s new location on Pioneer Avenue next to Refuge Chapel and the Grog Shop, the longtime coffee roaster now has a cafe with live music and, starting Friday, art. Adam Green, who also works as a barista at K-Bay Caffe, shows his bold mixed-media paintings that experiment with color, texture, form and negative space. Across the street from K-Bay Caffe, Photo Depot also has an art show this month. Eskimo artist Pamela Nolcini, who creates using her Alaska Native name of Asiak, has made dolls and figurines with fiber and other materials that evoke the ancient abstract simplicity of Eskimo design with a modern sensibility.
Two Homer brothers, Deland and Dennis Anderson, both exhibit their work this month, but at different galleries. Deland Anderson, known for his Australian aboriginal inspired dot technique, continues his exploration of landscapes with “The One and the Many” at Bunnell Street Arts Center. Dennis Anderson paints with light, capturing the vivid images of the aurora borealis using his own personally engineered cameras. Anderson is joined by other northern lights photographers Don Pitcher, and Mary Frische and Tom Collopy (Wild North Photography) with “Aurora Borealis,” a show at Ptarmigan Arts.
Art Shop Gallery
202 W. Pioneer Ave.
Twelve Days of Christmas Scavenger Hunt
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception
For its Customer Appreciation Weekend, the Art Shop Gallery holds a First Friday scavenger hunt. The first 12 customers to find all 12 images of Christmas hidden around the gallery may choose a golden gift bag from its customer appreciation tree with gifts such as jewelry or pottery. Customers also can put their name in a hat for a chance to win a free framing.
Bunnell Street Arts Center
106 W. Bunnell Ave.
The One and the Many, paintings by Deland Anderson
5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 6 p.m., artists talk
Homer painter Deland Anderson presents large acrylics on canvas and small tempera paintings with his signature dot technique of iconic Alaska vistas like Sadie Peak and Augustine Volcano. “In the multiplicity of dots, a philosophical mystery arises, that of The One and the many,” Anderson writes. “Two dots on a canvas, for example, is a symbol of two universes. This leads inevitably to the thought of multiple universes and the attendant questions of other worlds, plural selves, time travel, cosmic cycles and hierarchies, etc. So, one of my paintings comprises many thousands of individual symbols of possible worlds and all that might come with them. This is the absolute freedom of art.”
Fireweed Gallery
475 E. Pioneer Ave.
North, paintings and pyrography on birch by Katya Roberts
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Katya Robert’s “North” shows images created in acrylic paint and pyrography — wood burning — on birch. Her work looks at systems large and small: a birch tree grove, an airplane engine and the anatomical heart. “There is a degree of mystery and wonder in the successful life and design of these systems, suggesting an active presence of something greater — something that, like the North, is untamable,” the gallery describes her show. Born in Kiev, Russia, Roberts has lived in the United States since age 11. This exhibit began with her rediscovery of wood burning which she first fell in love with as a 10-year-old girl. “While creating these pieces, the smell of burning wood heightened my sense of nostalgia for the last frontier and transported me to the north,” she said.
K-Bay Caffe
397 Pioneer Ave.
New Work, mixed-media painting by Adam Green
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Artist Adam Green shows his work at the newly opened K-Bay Caffe on Pioneer Avenue next to Refuge Chapel and the Grog Shop. Mostly self-taught, Green works in acrylic, spray paint, color pencil, ink and graphite. His bold style combines colors, textures, form and negative space. He’s been experimenting with layering techniques done in computer illustration, but by hand. “When it comes to art, every aspect of my daily life ends up being manifested creatively,” Green said. “The visual is just something I’ve always done. I really got into making big canvas paintings to fill my wall with art.”
Photo Dept
378 E. Pioneer Ave.
First Alaskans, wool and fiber dolls and other creations by Asiak
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Pamela Nolcini, who also goes by her given Eskimo name, Asiak, shows her wool and fiber creations.Over the years Asiak has been collecting many of the materials and tools which have all come together in her hands to form dolls in the image of her ancestors, the Native Alaskan Eskimo. She said she feels honored to be able to create and share her people with visitors, and in doing so is privileged to be connected with her heritage physically and spiritually throughout the process. She also will be creating one of her dolls during her exhibit.
Picture Alaska
448 E. Pioneer Ave.
New Work by Eric Wiegardt
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday Reception
Washington state artist Eric Wiegardt shows his original watercolor paintings of Halibut Cove. Wiegardt is a Dolphin Fellow member of the American Watercolor Society and 2012 Gold Metal Winner of the International show of the American Watercolor Society. Also in the Holiday Show gallery are two new miniature floral oil paintings by Alaska artist Jeanne Young and new hand-made vests, slippers and accessories by Baabaazuzu.
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
471 E. Pioneer Ave.
Aurora Borealis, photographs by Dennis Anderson, Mary Frische and Tom Collopy (Wild North Photography), and Don Pitcher
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
A two-month show, Aurora Borealis features the photographs of Homer artists Dennis Anderson, Mary Frische and Tom Collopy (Wild North Photography), and Don Pitcher. Each of these photographers strive to create transcendent images that awaken and inspire viewers to embrace their surroundings with a sense of wonder and awe through images of the aurora borealis. Each artist brings an individual technique, style of camera and artist’s eye to this photography exhibit.
