10:00am | Tonight at 6 pm the University Art Museum is hosting a public opening for three new exhibitions. As I mentioned in my podcast interview with Ulrich Krieger, they’re presenting an immersive 3D multi-channel sound installation of a live performance by Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio. This, by itself, would be well worth the visit but wait! There’s more!

Split Moment is a thought provoking mixed media exhibition featuring photography, sculpture, installation, video, and drawings. It was curated by students in CSULB’s Graduate Program in Museum and Curatorial Studies. I’ll be interviewing Mary Coyne, one of the curators, next week.

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to get a sneak peak at the third exhibition, Static Noise. It is a collection of photographs, taken by Rhona Bitner as part of her Listen series, which documents significant music performance and recording venues. Even as Christopher Scoates, Director of UAM, spoke about the show and introduced Rhona, and even as Rhona herself began to speak about the work, my mind was drawn away from them and to the images displayed beautifully in the central room of the museum.

The images didn’t feel documentary at all. First, there are no people in any of them. The images felt both intimate and expansive, abstract and objective, and each echoed with a history that wasn’t evident, necessarily, but palpable.

I’m not prone to wax poetic, so I’ll reign myself in and simply say that I’m incredibly pleased and proud that we have such an amazing institution in our midst. If you’ve never been to the University Art Museum, go tonight at 6 PM. Really. Go.

Seriously.

One last thing: Lou Reed is making a stop at Fingerprints today at 3 PM. Don’t bother going, though, because Rand Foster, the owner of Fingerprints, told me that the list for admission is full. If you’re not already on the list, you will not get in. After the visit to Fingerprints, I believe Reed will be heading over to UAM for the opening. At 8 PM, he’s engaging in an on-stage conversation with legendary producer Bob Ezrin at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Tickets are still available.

To learn more about Rhona and her work, visit RhonaBitner.com.

To get ticket and performance information for the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, visit CarpenterArts.org.