Image of work by Arabella Proffer-Vendetta courtesy Art Whino

>> This Saturday, join the “capital’s largest public art event” at the Rhode Island Avenue Shopping Center (next to the Rhode Island Ave Metro station) to see over 100 artists paint a football field-sized wall during Mural Jam. Sponsored by Albus Cavus, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, local muralists mentored kids over the past couple months in developing and designing public art. Watch them work from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. while enjoying music, food and drinks for free.

>> It’s a good weekend to see artDC’s new gallery in Hyattsville when it opens Common Element, a collaboration between the Washington Glass School and DC GlassWorks. Artists and instructors all participated in the show, absorbing the leanings of each school. See their work during the opening reception on Saturday, 4 to 6 p.m.

>> Civilian Art Projects opens two exhibitions Friday. Laura Read’s work in through the green fuse highlights the “essential beauty of the relationship that exists between man-made objects and the natural word” with mixed-media works in two and three dimensions. Tom Green goes for a more minimalistic style with his drafting inspired paintings and screenprints in Points of View. 7 to 9 p.m.

>> Haven’t sweated enough this summer? Touchstone Gallery will solve that for you with the opening of My Space on 7th, the semi-annual non-juried show. First-come, first-served artists signed up for a plot in the gallery to do with whatever they wanted, and with 90 artists (and their friends and families), consider going on the very early or very late side to actually see anything. Friday, 6 to 8:30 p.m.

>> Innocence & Arrogance: The Art of Arabella Proffer and Brandi Read opens at Art Whino on Saturday. These two painters will show their pop-surrealist and neo-realist portraits of “Punks, Goths, Muses, Models and Royalty.” Join them from 6 p.m. to midnight with DJ Rick Taylor and DJ Sequential.

>> The Phillips Collection continues their Phillips After 5 events every Thursday through August. Tonight enjoy snacks from Fresh Farm Markets, DJ Danny Harris of Fatback D.C., a screening of the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (6 p.m.), and gallery talks on Blitzkreig Shock: Postwar Trauma’s Effect On Painting (6 and 7 p.m.).