The ‘60s never left

Given the 20-year lag between an event in pop culture and its inevitable resurrection, we should be knee-deep in Patrick Nagel prints, U2, R.E.M. and Run DMC records and Ronald Reagan hagiographies. (Well, we do have the latter, but that’s not a proper story for this paper’s arts section.)

This Second Saturday weekend presents several opportunities to re-experience that decade that baby boomers (continue to) use to club Generations X, Y and Z into submission. First, there’s The Art of Jim Carrico, a collection of graphic designs by Sacramento poster artist Jim Carrico, which will be on display at Sacramento Pipeworks, 116 North 16th Street, this Saturday, May 8, from 7 to 10 p.m. Carrico’s work is similar to that of other San Francisco artists of the period, such as the works of Rick Griffin and the Kelley-Mouse studio, and, like them, he designed a few Grateful Dead posters. In order to ensure that fine Dead vibe, the Other Pluckers, a string band, will be on hand to put a little Jerry Garcia into the mix.

Another prominent figure from the 1950s and 1960s was Cuban ruler Fidel Castro. And a photographic exhibit by Roberto Salas, Cuba! A Photographic Retrospective, will be up for one day, Saturday, May 8, from 5 to 9 p.m. at California State University, Sacramento’s Napa Hall. In 1959, Castro invited Salas and his photographer father Osvaldo to Havana to work for the new government newspaper Revolucion. The show features more than 40 photographs, six of them by Osvaldo (who died in 1992). There are images of Castro and Che Guevara, along with scenes of everyday life in Cuba; pictures Roberto took in Vietnam; and some large, color mosaic images, also by Roberto.

Sacramento’s legendary Autorama, a must-see event during the 1960s heyday of George Barris, may have disappeared, but artists are taking custom car designs to new levels of strangeness. Many of the 30 vehicles on display next Saturday, May 15, at the third annual Sacramento Art Car Bizarre and Fashion Show outside Gallery Horse Cow, at 1409 Del Paso Boulevard, most likely wouldn’t make the cut at a street-rod show—too much Burning Man and not enough early Beach Boys. But there is a level of automotive insanity at work at Art Car Bizarre that you won’t find at shows frequented by aging guys wearing “Chevrolet: The Heartbeat of America” satin jackets. And the spirits of such hot-rod art luminaries as Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Von Dutch and Robert Williams would feel right at home here. Oh, and there are some bands playing, too, and they probably won’t be doing “Little Deuce Coupe.”

Finally, you can still see the collection of historic Black Panther Party photographs at the California State History Museum, 1020 O Street, through Saturday, May 15. It’s About Time, a group of Black Panther Party alumni, put the show together to illustrate many of the positive community-outreach efforts of the Black Panthers, who were castigated by the media in the 1960s and beyond as a terrorist organization.