BY KAREN BOSSICK

Brazilian artist Flavia Junqueira sees the world through colorful balloons and bubbles.

And she wants others to see the joyful, whimsical world she sees, too, though her large-format photography that features historically significant sites and monumental architecture through the perspective of balloons and bubbles.

Junqueira approaches her work with the unbridled imagination of a child, the result are photos that are dreamlike and playful, that capture a realm of magical realism as she takes the readers to grand theaters, an ornate library and Rio de Janeiro’s Parque Lage.

Brazilian artist Flavia Junqueira’s “Parque Lage” can be seen at Gilman Contemporary.

You can see Junqueira’s work in an exhibition titled “The Absurd and the Grace” at Gilman Contemporary, 661 Sun Valley Road. And what better time than during the Wagon Days Gallery Walk, which will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, at galleries throughout Ketchum.

Ketchum artist Cubby West Spain is showcasing a new series focused on western landscapes and the cowboy imagery inherent in it.

Her work has been shown in galleries in Vail; Atlanta, Ga.; and even Venice, Italy. And her latest exhibition is opening at Hemmings Gallery, 340 Walnut Ave., in time for the Wagon Days Gallery Walk.

The show, titled “Backyard Prophecies,” also features works by her sister Ansley West Rivers, who like Cubby was raised in Atlanta, Ga., and now calls Idaho home.

Ansley West Rivers’ photograph of the Blacktail Ponds of the Snake River at Grand Teton National Park can be seen at Hemmings Gallery.

Cubby West Spain uses gouache, watercolor, acrylic and oils to convey the beauty and mystique of wild places. Her hope: That she can connect viewers with the importance of preserving wilderness lands. Currently, she is working on a series examining the American buffalo and their demise in the 19th century.

Rivers, meanwhile, has been photographing American rivers, including her own watershed in Idaho’s Teton Valley, using historical photographic techniques and a large format film camera. She layers several shots on each piece of film with masking made in camera to expand the singular landscape image.

Both artists will be present for the Opening Night Reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. during Gallery Walk.

Gail Severn Gallery, 400 1st Ave. N., is featuring exhibitions celebrating “Flower Stories” and “Honoring Our Landscape.”

Cubby West Spain’s “Summer in the Sawtooths” can be seen at Hemmings Gallery.

“Honoring Our Landscape” explores the artistic interpretation of our lands by three nationally renowned painters: Theodore Waddell, who lives in the Wood River Valley; James Cook, whose thickly painted oils often depict the Sawtooth Mountains and surrounding mountain rangers, and Michael Gregory, who is known for his iconic paintings of barns and homesteads that reflect the beauty of isolation in the American West.

“Flower Stories” feature the intricate graphite drawings of Maggie Shafran, large-scale photography by Laura McPhee and oil paintings by Kathy Moss, Betsy Margolius and Diane Andrews Hall.

The gallery is also featuring works by fiber artist Lisa Kokin, who uses cord and threads in her work, along with found and recycled materials; abstract painter Raphaelle Goethals, known for her signature layered encaustic and sophisticated minimalism, and Pegan Brookes’ oil paintings that mimic the atmospheric qualities of water through the use of metallic pigments and staccato brushstrokes

Kneeland Gallery, 271 N. 1st Ave. N., is featuring new works from a Polish artist and a Swedish artist, as well as works from an old favorite born and raised in Montana.

Flavia Junqueira’s imaginative photo of Teatro Amazonas-Pano de Boca can be seen at Gilman Contemporary.

Swedish artist Gunnar Tryggmo, depicts detailed depictions of birds and animals, such as zebra, in their natural habitat in his watercolors. Skorut, who was born and spent his early years in Krakow, Poland, before immigrating to the United States in 1987, creates paintings that appear to be simple landscapes at first glance but are as abstract as they are representational on further examination.

And Montana artist Mark Gibson, originally studied architecture, which led to him painting teepees, in which his use of color and composition works to move the viewer’s eye around the piece.

Jodie Stejer of Stejer Studio and Vault Curated Interiors Consignment are presenting a Walnut Avenue Block Party at 660 Sun Valley Road featuring food, drinks, vendors, games and DJ music from 4 to 8 p.m. Stejer’s encaustics will be available for viewing, as well as the amazing pieces in  Vault’s collection.

Sun Valley Contemporary, 320 1st Ave. N., is showing the work of a variety of contemporary artists, including Miles Glynn and Bill Claps.

Claps, a New York photographer and filmmaker who studied painting and art history at Harvard University, has created mixed media with foil on canvas of a Galena Panorama, The Boulders and aspen along the Big Wood River. Miles Glynn, a mixed media artist based in Marfa, Texas, creates works that are part contemporary imagery and part time capsule—and lots of fun to look at.

MESH Gallery, 4th and Leadville streets, features local landscapes photographed by Jeffery Lubeck. Lubeck’s photographic ventures into his beloved Sawtooth Mountains has been cut short this summer by smoke from the Bench Lake and now the Wapiti fires. He captured plenty of photographs of that wild country before that time, however, so you can enjoy Redfish and Stanley and other lakes through his work even if you can’t physically be there to enjoy them right now.

Saddletree Gallery, 360 East Ave., has lots of local surprises, including wild horses that Hillary Maybery has photographed, Jack Weekes’ serigraphs of Bald Mountain and other landmarks, Denver-based Dolan Geiman’s uniquely colorful collages of Indian chiefs, skiers, cardinals and Dia de los Muertos figures and Jerry Hadam’s photographs.

Broschofsky Galleries, 360 East Ave., features the work of contemporary and historical artists whose subject matter is the American West.

Sun Valley Museum of Art, 5th and Washington streets, is featuring the work of former Sun Valley photographer Tina Barney, whose photographs tell revealing moments about life in Sun Valley decades ago.