EAT to perform controversial play

English Alternative Theatre will present a free reading of Neil LaBute’s controversial play, “The Distance from Here,” at 8 p.m. Monday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

John Lahr, in his review of the play in The New Yorker, said, “LaBute, in his most ambitious and best play to date, gets inside the emptiness of American culture, the masquerade and the evil of neglect.”

Participating as readers are Colin Elliott, Jane Elliott, Chris Ordal, Gwethalyn Williams, Jessica Durrett, Jeremy Auman, Jason Simon, Libby Dean and Bill Heinen. Paul Stephen Lim is the director; Lee Saylor is the lighting designer; and Zacory Boatright is the stage manager.

Silkscreen artist to give gallery talk

Printmaker Ken Grizzell will give a gallery talk from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Fields Gallery, 712 Mass.

The gallery is exhibiting Grizzell’s recent works, which have been an experiment in simplifying the technical processes of screenprinting. The prints featured in the show span the past eight years of his career.

Grizzell began exhibition in 1958, winning a purchase award at the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in New Orleans. His work has been included in more than 100 shows across the country. He moved to Lawrence in 2000 after retiring from a professorship at the University of South Dakota. He has been represented by Fields since 2001.

For more information, call 842-7187. Grizzell’s work will be on view through Oct. 18.

‘Artist’s Life’ author to visit alliance meeting

Kansas City gallery owner Paul Dorrell will be the guest speaker at the next meeting of the Lawrence Photo Alliance.

Dorrell, owner of Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, Mo., and author of the new book “Living the Artist’s Life,” will talk after a portfolio presentation by alliance member Amy Alumbaugh.

The meeting runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the small gallery at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

Dorrell expects to launch a national book tour later this fall. His book is available at Hastings, Borders and Oread Books in the Kansas Union.

For more information, call the arts center at 843-2787 or visit www.lawrencephotoalliance.org.

Campus gallery to feature Cornhusker ceramics

An upcoming exhibition at Kansas University’s Art and Design Gallery will showcase the talents of a neighboring Midwestern university.

“Recent Work: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Graduate Ceramics” opens Sept. 12 and features 30 pieces by 10 artists, all master of fine arts candidates in ceramics. Works will include pottery, vessel and sculpture.

The show remains on view through Sept. 24. An opening reception will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 12 at the gallery, located on the third floor of the Art and Design Building at KU.

For more information, call 864-4401.

Lawrence artist’s works bloom in Manhattan gallery

Manhattan — “Wine and Appetizers: New Works by Judi Geer Kellas” opens Friday, Sept. 17, at the Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan.

A reception will be at 7 p.m. that day.

The works in the Lawrence artist’s show are of flowers, depicted not in a picturesque way, but in a manner that attempts to capture their spirit and struggle for life, Kellas says. She sometimes uses metallic materials, such as gold leaf, to capture the ephemeral nature of light, as in “Magenta Lotus,” above, a mixed media work rendered in acrylic paint and metal leaf.

“For me flowers are not dainty objects of decoration but powerful symbols of life: the origin of life and the life energy in ourselves and our environment,” Kellas says.

The gallery is at 406 1/2 Poyntz in Manhattan. For more information, call (785) 537-2099 or visit www.jgeerkellas.com.

Recital previews program for overseas sabbatical

Vince Gnojek, Kansas University professor of saxophone, will say goodbye to KU audiences before he travels overseas on an international sabbatical by giving a special faculty concert 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 in Swarthout Recital Hall.

The concert is free and open to the public and also features pianist Holly Beneventi. The diverse program will include selections by Domenico Cimarosa, Amy Quate, Astor Piazzolla, Alfred Desenclos, Victor Morosco and Ramon Ricker. It’s the same program Gnojek will perform at the University of Costa Rica, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and the Latvian Academy of Music in the next few months.

In addition to international recitals, Gnojek also will perform a concerto by Kansas composer Darren Jenkins with a wind ensemble in each country, and present clinics, master classes and lessons to saxophonists at the different schools he visits.

For more information, call 864-3436.

KU grad student in Lindsborg exhibit

Lindsborg — A ceramic bowl by Kansas University graduate student Derek Larsen will be featured in “Kansas Collegiate Aesthetics 2004,” a group exhibition at the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg.

The show, a biennial juried exhibition, is on view Tuesday through Oct. 24 at the gallery, 401 N. First St. A closing reception will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 24.

Warren Taylor, juror for the exhibition, selected 65 pieces from a field of more than 300 entries. Awards will be announced later.

For more information, contact the gallery at (785) 227-2220 or visit is Web site at www.sandzen.org.

Ad Astra inaugurates experimental art series

A four-week experimental performance art installation kicked off Saturday with “Drawing War,” a live interactive drawing competition, at Ad Astra Galleria, 205 W. Eighth St.

The series continues Saturday with the surrealist drawing game “Exquisite Corpse,” and Sept. 18 with “Subliminal Bling,” in which participants will create musical art during a live jam session.

The monthlong installation culminates Sept. 25 with a semiformal social event called “Disposa Ball.” Participants will receive disposable cameras and be encouraged to socialize through the art of image making. Prints from the event may be considered for a future exhibition.

Area artists and art lovers will join Dominic Sova, Robert Bender, and other artists in the weekly events.