BY KAREN BOSSICK

You’ll be asked to look at art in a new way when you head out onto the streets for Gallery Walk tonight.

Namely: What parts of the storyline can we believe? What don’t we know? What information do we need to fill in?

It’s part of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts’ new BIG IDEA project, “The Unreliable Narrator,” which opens tonight—Friday, Sept. 1—and runs through Nov. 14.

The Center, at 5^th and Washington streets, will open its doors from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight (other galleries will be open from 5 to 8 p.m.) Viewers are invited in for a glass of wine and a chance to cruise through new works.

The exhibition considers the power of the narrator—a story teller who shapes our experience of a story by determining the pace of which it unfolds, the order in which we learn about events and the details we’re given. Sometimes they’re not completely reliable and their accounts can’t be trusted. They may lie either directly or by emission, or they may misrepresent the events—al lof and they may ask readers or viewers to fill in the blanks, said Courtney Gilbert, the exhibition’s curator.

Featured artists are:

• Holly Andres, a Portland-based photographer known for her compelling narratives that unfold over a series of carefully constructed images that leave room for viewers to complete the story.
• Mark Dion, whose drawings, sculpture, photography and film probe the relationship between science and its claim to truth
• Simon Evans, whose paper-based sculptural works done with Sarah Lannan combine text and images in unexpected and often humorous ways.
• Jenny Kendler, the current artist-in-residence for the Natural Resources Defense Council, who has paired art and literature to focus on the challenges facing the natural environment .
• Gina Phillips, a New Orleans artist who creates installations with fabric, thread, ink and paint weaving together narrative strands from history, folklore and myth, and
• Deb Sokolow, a Chicago artist who creates elaborate drawings using historical figures as the starting point for dark but hilarious stories.

  OTHER GALLERY WALK HIGHLIGHTS:

• Gail Severn Gallery, 400 First Avenue North, will present new oil landscapes by James Cook depicting familiar scenes ranging from the Sawtooth Mountains to Silver Creek Preserve. He uses thick impastos and scrapped textures to create a radiance that invites viewers to plunge into the depths.

  Judith Kindler has created a large, impressive body of life-sized assemblage figures of women, paintings and wall hangings addressing “Of What Importance” in terms of the environment  and other issues. (See Eye on Sun Valley’s Aug. 30 story, “Judith Kindler Finds New Perspective).

  Alexander Rohrig, who comes out of a California culture of skateboarding and surfing,  finds humor in art with playful sculptures and paintings that are very much about visual storytelling.

  Kindler and Rohrig will take part in a free Artist Chat at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at the gallery.

• Gilman Contemporary, 661 Sun Valley Road, will feature works by Ashley Collins, who was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum Hall of Fame, alongside Reba McEntire and Ann Romney this past year. She pays homage to the Velveteen Rabbit’s question, ‘What is real?” with her new encaustic works. Collins’ deeply layered works integrate portions of figurative horse heads and silhouettes among imagery from vintage photographs, literature and postcards. She is also showing prints influenced by a fourth-generation Japanese printmaker named Izumi Kato.

  Jeri Eisenberg’s newest series, “Warm Waters,” embraces the movement of water utilizing Japanese Kozo paper and infused with encaustic, the photographs are atmospheric and soft.

  Rodney Smith’s iconic black and white photographs of Paris, New York and French Gardens will also be exhibited.

• Ketchum Innovation Center (KIC), 311 First Ave. N. , in the old post office on Sun Valley Road, will feature the works of Mimi Stuart, whose Energy of Subject paintings have found their way into the homes of Buzz Aldrin and other celebrities around the world.
• Kneeland Gallery, 271 First Avenue North, will feature Neal Philpott’s realistic paintings of meandering roads, and farmhouses. Also, Linda St. Clair’s paintings of animals both barnyard and wild. And, finally, Jennifer Lowe’s wildflower portraits found in her native Montana and drawn with Livestock Marker.
• Lipton Fine Arts, 4^th and Leadville streets, continues to present works focusing on sandhill cranes and “Scenes from the Hidden Garden” by Ketchum artist Deborra Marshall Bohrer.
• Friesen Gallery, 320 First Avenue North, is exhibiting a group exhibition that includes Lawrence Fodor’s “Eclipse.”
• Broschofsky Galleries, 360 East Ave., will feature Western works by such artists as Russell Chatham, Edward Curtis ad Theodore Villa.
• MESH Gallery, 420 Fourth St., will feature new photographic works of local scenes by Jeffrey Lubeck, Tessa Sheehan, Tory Taglio and Ed Cannady.
• Mountain Images Gallery, 360 East Ave., features beautiful large-scale photographic landscapes by James Bourret, as well as photographs by Jerry Hadam and Diana Citret.
• Wood River Fine Arts, 360 East Avenue, will feature 16 artists from the Prix de West Show, including Russell Case, R.S. Riddick and Michael Lynch.
• Harvey Art Projects USA, on Walnut Avenue off Sun Valley Road, will feature original works by Australian aboriginal artists.
• Stone Art Gallery, in the Walnut Avenue Mall off Sun Valley Road, will feature the works of stonemason Jeff Holmchick, including wall art and sculptures.
• Frederic Boloix Fine Arts, in the Galleria at 4^th and Leadville streets, will feature paintings and drawings by modernists such as Francoise Gilot.