Dig Indy artist reception, Friday, July 6, 6-9pm

In partnership with Citizens Energy Group  the Harrison Center presents DigIndy, a First Friday artist reception to take place on July 6 from 6 to 9pm. The DigIndy Art Project is a public outreach initiative that seeks to raise awareness of the environmental benefits of DigIndy and the work that is happening below the city to improve Indianapolis’s water quality. As part of the project, the Harrison Center’s Gallery Annex will host a group show featuring the work of 42 local artists on round wood panels (“manhole covers”). During the artist reception, a jury selected by the Arts Council of Indianapolis will choose fifteen designs that will be reproduced on actual manhole covers and installed along the Cultural Trail.

In the Harrison Gallery, painter Benny Sanders’ solo exhibit, “A Certain Light” will include a combination of plein air landscapes and portraits. “Relatively new to painting and deeply consumed, I have made these paintings in an attempt to understand how light describes a subject. My subjects are chosen by instinctively investigating what I would honestly enjoy painting. The subject is often easily discovered, but the process of painting a clear image of these people and places is deceptive, complex and addictive.” Acclaimed jazz guitarists Chase Blackburn and Charlie Ballantine will play in the gallery from 7-9pm.

In the City Gallery, encaustic artist Kathryn Dart’s “Communal Construct” is a series of urban land- and skyscapes juxtaposing painterly encaustic strokes with carefully composed wax blocks, evoking feelings of place rather than representation. This work explores both the public and private ways we create our experience of city living in Indianapolis.

Speck Gallery features “Lathe | Lens,” woodturning and photographs by Tom Peck. “I’m drawn to creating images of fleeting moments—sunrises, clouds, waves on sand; instances that could easily go unnoticed. Fortunately, they happen every day, all around us, and I find joy in spotting and recording them…I’m also attracted to the hidden beauty revealed through wood turning. There are possibilities in each chunk of wood, and I’m almost always surprised by the intricacies of grain and color exposed in each piece. I’m especially intrigued by wood that has been distressed by time, trauma, weight, and weather. The impact of these natural forces can create an unusual or startling beauty that might otherwise never be seen, or dismissed as of no use.”

In Hank & Dolly’s, “Origins” is an exhibition of Stuart Alter’s work inspired by “the cycle of life and the elusive moment of the origins of nature. In this exhibition in particular, the selected pieces emphasize origins of nature – a flower, a canyon, a nucleus, an erupting volcano, or a star.” Alter, who relocated to Indianapolis from Philadelphia two years ago, is a studio artist at the Stutz Art Center. He has had numerous shows in both Indianapolis and Philadelphia, including juried shows in both cities. He is Director of Technology at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

Naptown Stomp, Indy’s local vintage swing dancing community, returns this month with swing dancing in the gym.

The work hangs through June 29.