Living in a material world

It doesn't matter what the material is; Robert Ortbal will befriend it, whether it's ordinary, fussy or just plain difficult to work with, and like Alec in The Black Stallion, he will gallop down the beach with it—bareback. Ortbal ran with chrome last year when he coated a massive garbage container for the Art of the Dumpster public art project with the reflective covering, and this month, in Musical Chairs, Ortbal—a professor at Sacramento State—has outfitted the gallery with sculpture and installation work at not only JayJay, but Beatnik Studios, too. Expect to see delicate, ethereal textures, like a stack of blushing tulle cut into lotus flower shapes, but also rough and angular objects.

The JayJay reception for Musical Chairs occurs on Second Saturday, but the Beatnik reception is the day before, Friday, September 11, with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Also showing at JayJay is Wrapped Narratives, featuring mixed-media assemblage work by S.R. Jones.