Arts Agenda

Last week a little dose of relief came to the city's art lovers and critics, as the National Gallery of Art announced they've filled the position to head up their department of modern art, vacant for around six months now. Harry Cooper comes to the NGA from the Harvard University Art Museums, and Washington City Paper's Jeffry Cudlin does a good job putting it in perspective. In other museum news, camera-in-cell-phone technology is officially history.

>> Our gallery pick this week has to be the Randall Scott Gallery. The main gallery will feature the high powered works of Lori Nix (pictured right), who builds intricate dioramas of our cultural treasures -- museums, theaters, etc. -- in a post-apocalyptic world, then photographs them with a large format camera. The resulting images straddle a fine line between surreal and too-real. Dane Picard has a new Hands Mosaic Project video, which we loved last time. And to top it off, photographer Amy Stein will show a few works in Halloween in Harlem, a humorous study of kids taking on their costume personas on the streets of New York City. Opening reception is Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m.

>> Another must-see this weekend is, lucky for you, a block away at Irvine Contemporary, where Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick will present Eisbergfreistadt ("Iceberg Free State"). These two artists, engineers, historians and storytellers present the fantasy world of an actual port town in Germany, inspired by its strange history that includes, yes, a giant iceberg running aground on its shores in 1923. Kahn and Selesnick use photography and drawings to produce thought-provoking commentary, usually with a dose of humor, on history and current events. Lovers of the final frontier need to go for the first exhibition showing of their new work, Mars Glider (pictured below). Opening reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.