Artifacts: A sci-fi vision of the future is viewable today

>> Cincinnati artist and art professor Andrew Au’s concept drawings look a bit like the dark surrealist art of H.R. Giger, a weird melding of the organic and the mechanical, intricate steampunk-looking contraptions. He’s got a show at the Monterey Peninsula College Gallery (980 Fremont St., Monterey) that’s aptly titled Life Industries, made up of sculptures, digital paintings and screen prints that look like they were teleported in from a disturbing future gone wrong. It opens 12:30-2pm Thursday, with a gallery talk at 1pm. 646-3060.

>> This Friday you’ve got your choice of two Monterey County art walks. Pacific Grove’s Wine, Art & Music Walk happens 6-9pm and compels many businesses and arts institutions (most notably the Pacific Grove Art Center) to stay open after sundown. Maps at participating locations will orient you. In the interior, Trish Sullivan’s First Friday Oldtown Artwalk is celebrating its 10th year anniversary, with special surprises augmenting the usual ambitious scope and multitude of venues (check out Somos Gallery and the Steinbeck Center), performers, musicians and street art. Be greedy and do both. Fare thee well.

>> Bob Sadler showed the photographic portraits that make up his exhibition Inherent Worth and Dignity: Living Portraits of Monterey County’s Homeless Men at Monterey Museum of Art earlier this year. If you missed it, the artwork is returning for an extended stay at Carl Cherry Center, beginning with an opening 5-7pm this Friday, at which some of the homeless men will be in attendance. On Saturday, Sept. 6, at 4pm, a lecture, slideshow and book-signing brings together Sadler and Cassidy Hausmann Mason, who wrote narratives for the portraits, and Timothy Barrett, who produced a documentary video accompaniment. The show will also be the first local use of something called “augmented reality,” which should enable viewers to watch and listen to the homeless men tell their stories. 624-7491.

>> “Keep Tahoe Blue” is a slogan that four artists of the Carmel Art Association (Dolores between Fifth and Sixth, Carmel, 624-6176) would agree with. Roianne Hart, Alicia Meheen, Carol Parkerand Anne Downs have been going on hiking and painting sojourns there for 10 years. They’ve taken their nature excursions as inspiration in The Painters Trail to Lake Tahoe show, opening 5-7pm Friday (6pm for the meet-the-artists-wine-and-martini panel discussion). Yes, martinis, in homage to the martinis Hart’s mother used to greet the painters with after their hike.