BY KAREN BOSSICK

Friensen+Lantz is unveiling a new exhibit called “Black Joy.” Gail Severn Gallery is showcasing Alexander Rohrig’s sometimes chaotic paintings illustrating farm life. And Kneeland Gallery is showcasing en plein air art that eight of its artists painted in the Sun Valley area this week.

These are some of the works you can look forward to in tonight’s Gallery Walk from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

• Friesen+Lantz, 320 North 1^st Ave. N., is featuring Christopher Ada Williams’ “Black Joy.” The artist, who is making his Sun Valley debut, has painted an array of portraits, including that of the Queen of Sheba and “The Light, a dramatic oil on polyester painting using 22k gold.

  “Black women are a cornerstone of the nation and yet U.S. history often pushes them aside. In this collection I capture Black joy and the exuberance of being free to enjoy Black women’s significance, dignity and beauty,” writes Williams.

  Friesen+Lantz is also featuring Hunt Rettig’s “My Twelve Impulses”—3D creations that produce the illusion of 2D, backlit, digital compositions built from molded and shaped polyester on an acrylic substrate.

• Kneeland Gallery, 271 N. 1^st Ave. N., will showcase the works of eight artists who have been taking part in the 31st Annual Plein Air Exhibition. The artists painted at Murdock Creek and Lake Creek and will finish up their outdoor painting extravaganza painting from noon 11:30 p.m. today—Friday, Aug. 5--at Ketchum’s Rotary Park on Warm Springs Road.

  The artists will then show what they painted this week at the Gallery, with Friday’s pieces auctioned off in a silent auction.

  The artists are Steven Lee Adams, Ovanes Berberian, Jack Braman, John Horejs, Shanna Kunz, Robert Moore, Silas Thompson and Bart Walker.

• Gail Severn Gallery, 400 1^st Ave. N., is showcasing the works of four artists. Laura McPhee will show new large-format, film photographs of the natural landscape, often displaying man’s impact on the land. Alexander Rohrig, who lives and works in the mountains of Northern California, will exhibit a new series of oil paintings that illustrate a farm life that, from the artist’s perspective, can be chaotic, violent, noisy and full of hard work. (Be sure to look for the humor in his art.)

  Ed Musante captures the soul and essence of birds and other animals, transforming them into an icon that he paints in exquisite detail. And Gary Komarin and Rana Rochat will have some of their abstract and  encaustic paintings on display.

• Gilman Contemporary, 661 Sun Valley Road, is featuring works by Wendel Wirth, a contemporary fine art photographer living in Ketchum. You’ll find yourself “getting in the gruv” as Wirth’s lifelong devotion to music has led her to photograph nearly 200 albums, focusing on the grooves that she says sport three-dimensional qualities showcasing the beauty of music.
• Ketchum Artist Ralph Harris will display 30 years of artwork celebrating the beauty and majesty of local landscapes and native wildlife from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the ERC, 471 Washington Ave. He will also have limited edition prints and notecards of his commemorative work of the SNRA for purchase, and the ERC will have tracks, pelts and skulls of local animals for kids and adults to explore.

  A portion of sales from Harris’s work celebrating the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, which turns 50 this month, will benefit the ERC’s youth environmental education programs.

• Anderson Architects above Friesen+Lantz will showcase serigraphs of trout, Sawtooth couloirs and other Idaho scenes created by Ketchum artist Jack Weekes, whose work can also be seen at Jerry Hadam’s shop at 360 East Ave.
• Frederic Boloix Fine Arts, 351 Leadville Ave in The Galleria Building, is showing works by contemporary European Masters.

• MESH Gallery, 420 4^th St. E., is showcasing Jeffrey Lubeck’s colorful photographs of the Sawtooth Mountains and other local landscapes.
• Sun Valley Museum of Art, 191 Fifth St. East, is displaying its visual arts exhibition “Garden: Collaborations with Nature.” PHOTO