Wilde Art

Five artists who experiment with eclectic materials open at Conrad Wilde Saturday night

Artist Daniella Woolf likes to work with discarded materials that no longer have a use elsewhere.

Old string, reclaimed paper, aging family artifacts all make their way into her artworks, which are on view in "High Strung," a solo show, opening Saturday night at Conrad Wilde Gallery. Woolf's "Yellow Totem," a highlight of the exhibition, is a spiraling tower of canary-yellow rolls of paper and white notes, bound together by string.

Trained in textile structures at UCLA, Woolf is also inspired by Native American breastplates, the bold geometric shields that are an important part of the Indian aesthetic.

Woolf gives an artist's talk at the gallery at 7 p.m. Saturday, during an opening reception that goes from 6 to 9 p.m. Woolf's work occupies the "project space" at the gallery's newly renovated digs at the old Steinfeld Warehouse. The main gallery is turned over to four artists in the group show "Burst." Several of the artists speak about their work in artists' talks at 7 p.m. Saturday, during an opening reception that goes from 6 to 9 p.m.

Wilde is known for unusual artist materials and processes, and neither Woolf nor the "Burst" artists disappoint.

Michael Afsa of Phoenix deploys aluminum, wood, sand and plant fibers in lyrical abstracted landscapes, and sometimes moves over into harder works crafted of industrial sheet metals. Stephanie Lerma of New Mexico concentrates on paper, and her "Installation" is full of hollow balls, hand-cast of paper. Cameron Luft, who got his MFA at ASU, is inspired by slick, shiny cars and computers, and turns that fascination into glossy 3-D works and boldly colored paintings.

Gallery director Miles Conrad, showcasing his own brightly colored waxy art, demonstrates that he's master nonpareil of encaustics.