Figure 2a

A REVOLUTION “Any revolution is the repurposing of a society,” says artist Stan Douglas, whose latest series of photographs, Cuba, will travel from the David Zwirner Gallery in New York to the Joslyn Art Museum (Nebraska’s largest) in March. The images capture the eerie clash of reality and idealism as seen in Cuban neighborhoods like Tarara and its prerevolution structures—such as a beach resort, now hauntingly deserted, that was also once used as a cultural center for children recovering from radiation poisoning at Chernobyl. Fifteen of the thirty-three original photographs from Cuba will be on view at the Joslyn in Omaha March 12–May 8. www.joslyn.org

Figure 2b

EBAY ART
If she’s not teaching kids how to weave as part of the Maryland State Arts Council Artists-in-Residence program, then she’s on eBay bidding and buying kitschy collections of plastic hair rollers and shower curtain rings to weave into her own art. An environmental designer by training, Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette is salvaging the once prized, now discarded possessions of eBay sellers and transforming them into new organic shapes. And yes, they are for sale, again. Several galleries are showing her eBay series this spring, including: Abington Arts Center in Jenkintown, Penn. (Jan. 12–Feb. 12), Gaithersburg Art Barn in Maryland (Jan. 21–March 20), and Steifel Fine Arts Center in Wheeling, W.V. (March 3–April 9), to name a few. http://home.comcast.net/~rugworks

Figure 2c

THE PENTAGRAM PAPERS
Many museums have caved into the temptation of installing exhibitions about everyday design—most recently, MoMA’s Humble Masterpieces, and last year’s Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life at The Walker. Curators were hopeful that putting a pad of Post- It notes and a box of Band-Aids on tall pedestals would cause the nondesign world to realize that the industry does more than produce pretty posters—it also plays an invaluable, functional role in society. Leave it to Pentagram to drive the message home with an acute look at one of our passé modern-day marvels, the slide rule. Advanced by the compelling writing of Lance Knobel, Pentagram Papers #33 explains exactly what the world has lost since the device’s disappearance. www.pentagram.com

Figure 2d

LIGHTS! CAMERA!
While producers of the Academy Awards are trying to make this year’s Oscar night (Feb. 27) more controversial with provocative punchliner Chris Rock emceeing the event, the Palm Springs Desert Museum is taking a quiet and conventional approach to honoring one of Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes legends —celebrity photographer George Hurrell. As MGM’s studio portraitist throughout the ’30s and ’40s, Hurrell set the standard for the glamorous headshot. In light of the centennial of his birth, 75 of his famous gelatin silver prints will be on view as Lights! Camera! Glamour! George Hurrell at 100 until March 20. www.psmuseum.org

Figure 2e

THINK SMALL
They’ve got the whole world in a shoebox at the University of Hawaii. These 145 powerful, yet petite pieces of sculpture (each no bigger than a pair of flip-flops) are on display at the university’s gallery in Manoa. Art professors Mamoru Sato and Fred Roster initiated the “space- and scale-limited” exhibition of International Shoebox Sculpture eight years ago as a way to produce an economically feasible traveling show and to promote the sizable standing of sculpture today. Desiccated vegetables, human hair, metal, and clay—it’s got something for everyone. The Eighth International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition travels to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio ( Jan. 30–March 13), Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, S.D. (April 3–May 15), and MacNider Art Museum in Mason City, Iowa ( June 5–July 17). www.hawaii.edu/artgallery/shoebox