Arts scene: (2/1/08): Arts

Jim Brashear interacts with clay, shows his work nationally and teaches ceramics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His wood-kilned vessels will appear in a solo show called "Recent Discoveries" in Alaska Pacific University's Grant Hall.

"The surfaces I create are narrative fragments concerning cycles inherent in both nature and people," Brashear said in an artist statement.

Next door at the Carr Gottstein Gallery, "Unknown World" includes print work by Denis Keogh of Cordova, who received a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artists Fellowship in 2006.

Receptions for both shows are from 5:30 to 7:30 tonight (564-8202, www.alaskapacific.edu/calendar).

-- Dawnell Smith

visual arts

The Buckner revisited through surreal photos

Who visits Whittier without developing a fascination for the concrete barracks of the Buckner Building, used by the Army in World War II and abandoned after earthquake damage in 1964?

Certainly not photographer Bonnie Landis, who explores the iconic building in "Abandoned in Whittier," a show of High Dynamic Range (HDR) prints at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art.

This technique involves getting multiple shots of a scene at various exposure settings and then combining them using software. The resulting prints often look painterly, luminous and surreal.

Sounds like the perfect way to capture the strange and ongoing story of the six-story building once heralded as a city under one roof and now left to Mother Nature. Asbestos, graffiti and human destruction abound, Landis said in a description of her work.

Last August, she "witnessed sinks being tossed from an upper window."

The show opens from 5:30 to 7:30 tonight at the International (427 D St., www.igcaalaska.org), along with the group show "Attachments," which includes works by Annie Aube, Scott MacDonald, Hal Gage, Christina Barber and many more Alaska artists.

-- Dawnell Smith

music

Big voices, great tunes in "Il Trovatore"

"Il Trovatore" often comes up in conversations about the dumbest plots in opera. But what can't be forgotten is that "Trovatore" also boasts one powerhouse number after another. The melodious, passionate and challenging score makes it Verdi's "White Album."

Get a load of the Italian composer's face-melting arias starting Saturday, when Anchorage Opera opens a weeklong production.

For a plot synopsis, suffice to say the convoluted story involves vengeful gypsies, baby-switching and forbidden love.

Talent imported to tackle this challenging vocal work includes soprano Adina Aaron (New York City Opera, Teatro Giuseppe Verdi di Busseto), tenor Gustavo Lopez Manzitti (Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires, Virginia Opera) and baritone Anton Belov, whom the Washington Post has described as having "voluminous sound, appealing stage presence and a tone of rich vibrancy that remained consistent at all dynamic levels."

This production is sung in Italian with English supertitles. Performances are at 8 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Feb. 8 and 4 p.m. Feb. 10 in Discovery Theatre. Tickets are $35-$105, with half-price tickets for students and seniors on select days. (263-2787, www.anchorageopera.org)

-- Sarah Henning

theater

Moonstruck over complex family relationship

A ghost, an Angel and a cheerfully demented old woman battle hardship in "Sway Me, Moon," which will have its premiere today at Out North.

The play was written by Arlitia Jones, an Anchorage poet and playwright best known for her 2001 poetry collection, "The Bandsaw Riots." This is Jones' first full-length play to be produced.

Jones' plot follows Angel (Dean Williams), who by day works demolition at the site of a terrorist attack. At night, he rushes home to care for his addled mother, Dolly (Linda Benson), who has learned to cope with past spousal abuse by retreating to a hunky-dory fantasy world in which she's married to Dean Martin.

Their delicately balanced existence is threatened by both a feud with a neighbor and Angel's romantic interest in a door-to-door sales lady.

Three Wise Moose Productions stages "Sway Me, Moon" at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays (although there is no show this Sunday) through Feb. 17 at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Road. Tickets are $18 online, $20 at the door. (279-3800, www.outnorth.org)

-- Sarah Henning

museum

Symposium details northern ingenuity exhibit

"Yuungnaqpiallerput" is Yup'ik for "The Way We Genuinely Live" -- and it's also the name of a new exhibit showing how Alaska Natives adapted tools and technology from the resources at hand to survive and thrive in the northern climate.

The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, 121 W. Seventh Ave., will host a symposium from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, discussing how the show came together; registration is $25, $20 for museum members and $10 for students. Call 343-4326 for more information. The exhibit proper opens at the museum with a reception at 1 p.m. Sunday, with Yup'ik dancing adding to the festivities.

-- Mike Dunham