Toledo Area Artists, Salon des Refuses shows to open

'Cyclops Bunny' by Joe King is in the Bittersweet Farms show at 20 North Gallery. Enlarge

'Poppies on Black' by Steven Henry, is in the Bittersweet Farms show at 20 North Gallery. Enlarge

'Hot Swing,' by Stewart Raney, is part of the Salon des Refuses show at the Parkwood Gallery. NOT BLADE PHOTO Enlarge

Opening with pomp the evening of July 9 are two long-time Toledo favorites, both free: the Toledo Area Artists' Exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Salon des Refuses, in the Parkwood Gallery across Monroe Street from the museum.

For the venerable TAA show, awards will be presented at a 7:30 reception (cash bar at 6:30). In the museum's lower-level Works on Paper Galleries, it will continue through Aug. 22. It's the 92nd year for this exhibition, the most prestigious local contest. From 789 entries, 103 were chosen for this show.

Anyone who entered but was not selected for the TAA show can enter the Salon des Refuses, which is named for 19th-century exhibits staged by Impressionist painters whose canvases were refused entry into a prestigious Parisian show. The Salon will run through Aug. 20 and is organized by Prizm Creative Community.

Also the evening of July 9, two other Toledo museum events are the 8 p.m. screening of Summer of Love, and glass-blowing demonstrations by Keke Cribbs and Ross Richmond from 7 to 10 p.m.

Shown in the Little Theater, Summer of Love is a 2007 documentary from the PBS American Experience series. It looks at San Francisco in 1967 when thousands of young people flocked to the Haight-Ashbury district for the hippie experience, only to discover it was already receding.

Cribbs and Ross, of Washington state, will give a 6 p.m. talk in the Little Theater, and they'll make glass from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Glass Pavilion.

Crafting a Response: The Artists of Bittersweet Farms, will open July 10 and continue through July 31 at 20 North Gallery. Displayed will be creative textiles, ceramics, and paintings by 13 women and men who participate in Bittersweet Farms, a facility in Whitehouse for adults with autism. For some of them, art is their main medium of communication to the world. A reception will be 6 to 9 p.m. July 22 in the gallery, 18 North St. Clair St. Information: 419-875-6986.

Porcelain sculpture by Joe Madrigal is displayed in the Lea Gallery at the Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion at the University of Findlay through July 16.

A visiting professor of art at Kalamazoo College, Madrigal combines sewn, knitted, and upholstered colors and forms with porcelain and terra cotta objects. Information: 419-434-4345.

Artists are invited to create and donate chairs that will be auctioned to raise money for art programs at the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee and Adrian's annual Art-A-Licious Festival. People may use their own or obtain a chair from the Adrian Public Library, 143 East Maumee St. in Adrian. Deadline is Aug. 20. Chairs will be displayed throughout downtown businesses Sept. 1-16, and will be sold via silent auction that concludes Sept. 18. Information: 517-264-4877.

Icons of Loss: The Art of Samuel Bak is at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills, Mich. through Aug. 15. More than 60 of Bak's paintings, studies, and sketches are exhibited. Born in Poland in 1933, Bak was a child when his town, Vilna, was occupied by the Germans. His family moved to the Jewish ghetto, then a labor camp, but he was smuggled out and given refuge in a monastery. His artistic expression deals with destruction and dehumanization, which make up his childhood memories. A resident of Massachusetts, Bak has lived in Rome, Paris, and Israel. The center is at 28123 Orchard Lake Rd. Information: 248-553-2400 and holocaustcenter.org.

Items for News of Art should be sent to tlane@theblade.com at least two weeks before the event.