Events outside the box – Art exhibits around town Thursday and Friday

Upstairs at a warehouse on Main Street near downtown, artist Raina Wirta is standing atop a very tall ladder, adjusting the lighting above a giant, furry (yes, furry) dome-like structure that hangs from the ceiling. The LSU MFA candidate unveiled her exhibition “(un)familiar” to a crowd last Friday. Earlier that week, she was busy putting together the finishing touches.

That brown, furry dome? It’s accented on one side with folds of red material and in the cavernous space underneath, bat sounds are pumped in through speakers. It’s one part of a spatial collage, where works on canvas Wirta has hung on the brick walls of the warehouse are morphed into real shapes scattered throughout the vast space. “It gives these things a new meaning,” she says.

One of Wirta’s works inside the Capitol Area Corporate Recycling Center.

The starting point is wallpaper. Wirta gathered scraps of gaudy floral wallpaper patterns and added her own elements—cutout images from magazines of hands, legs and other body parts that unfold almost like the flowers in the pattern. While she moved the ladder across the room, securing wiring to the rafters high above, she talked about why she chose to weave wallpaper through her pieces.

“Looking at it, it brings up memories from my childhood of wallpaper I really hated or liked. We don’t really talk about wallpaper, but it’s there in the background,” she says. “It’s supposed to be this sort of ignored thing.”

Her exhibit was one of many MFA candidate shows happening last week, though hers continues this week and was the only one held in a non-traditional space. Wirta, a founding member of the local art collective Elevator Projects, organized that group’s first event in the same location. And on opening night last week was the final product of her MFA work, with wall art, sculpture and a video installation of a model wearing one of her sculptures.

“(un)familiar” continues tomorrow, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at the Capitol Area Corporate Recycling Center on Main Street.

While we’re talking about art in interesting places, the LSU Sculpture Department is hosting an exhibition of sculpture and performance by undergrads that starts at 5 p.m. tonight (Thursday). The event happens on the 4th floor terrace of the Shaw Center, on the grounds of the building and at North Boulevard Town Square with interactive and kinetic works as well as a performance that encompasses the full two hours of the opening reception. If you miss it tonight, the installations will be on view through May 3. For more, check out the event’s page here.

Another event Thursday that celebrates art in Baton Rouge, Art Wine Design takes place at many businesses at Southdowns Village shopping center. The event will take on a block party vibe with music from Michael Foster and Hubbard, Decker & Rhodes. Artwork purchased Thursday will be sold without sales tax. The event kicks off at 6 p.m.

Well, with his art, anyway. Yet another event Thursday night is Of Moving Colors closing out its 26th season with a performance at the Manship Theatre. The show, “P.S.425” is a collaboration with LSU College of Art and Design’s Nadine Carter Russell Chair Peter Shire and will feature dancers using interactive set pieces he designed, including a catwalk, whimsical chairs, thrones and more. A free pre-performance reception will be held at Glassell Gallery at 6:30 p.m. The show begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by a free post-performance reception at Glassell at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $25. For more information, click here.