The Savannah College of Art and Design showcases the School of Fine Arts with the inaugural deFINE ART festival. The mission of deFINE ART is to establish an annual fall festival highlighting the School of Fine Arts on par with the nationally recognized spring SCAD Style festival. deFINE ART seeks to celebrate the achievements and outstanding caliber of SCAD’s School of Fine Arts that is actively shaping and giving rise to new artistic expression, dialogue and innovation. Highlighted disciplines include painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

deFINE ART brings a broad range of noted art professionals, alumni and special guests to SCAD with the highly-anticipated Open Studios as the festival anchor.

Friday, November 13

Nene Humphrey Exhibition, Performance and Gallery Talk: “Circling the Center,” Pinnacle Gallery, 320 E. Liberty St., 7 p.m.

“Circling the Center” uses the drum circle, one of the oldest forms of human communication, the craft of Victorian mourning braiding, and the sounds generated during the fabrication process as its conceptual underpinnings and physical structure. The exhibition showcases individual weavings made in the gallery by Humphrey, students, faculty and alumni that, combined, create a central structure of woven wire elements based on Victorian mourning braids.

Humphrey earned an M.F.A. degree from York University in Toronto and an M.A. degree from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. She has taught at New York University, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the University of Connecticut. Her work is included in the permanent collections of art centers including the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga.; Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, Havana, Cuba; The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; and the Ogden Museum at the University of New Orleans.

Saturday, Nov. 14

Open Studio Night, Alexander Hall, 668 Indian St., and River Club, 3 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 5-8 p.m.

Open Studio Night features original works by SCAD students, faculty and alumni. The event showcases the best of SCAD painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. Artwork on exhibit is available for purchase. Guests are invited to visit the college’s studio spaces and experience hands-on demonstrations.

Projections and Motion Paintings, David Ellis and Roberto Lange, River Club, 3 Martin Luther King Blvd., 6-8 p.m.

Nick Cave, Hamilton Hall Parking Lot, 522 Indian St., 8-9 p.m.

Nick Cave is one of the most internationally acclaimed and sought after artists working today. Suggestive of ceremonial garments, costume, haute couture and superhero disguise, Cave’s Soundsuits, or performative wearable sculptures, are intricately ornamented with reclaimed fabric and found objects selected for their symbolism and auditory function. Densely layered in material and meaning, Cave’s otherworldly creations will be performed by Cave, SCAD students and community members as part of the deFINE ART festival in what Cave is calling a spoken word, dance, DJ music extravaganza.

He has been the celebrated recipient of solo exhibitions at such prestigious venues as Jack Shainman Gallery, New York (2008); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (currently); and Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy (forthcoming 2010), to name only a few. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Modern Painters, The Washington Post, Artforum, The New Yorker, and others, and a recent comprehensive catalogue, “Meet Me At the Center of the Earth,” was published this year. Cave earned an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and a B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Mo.

Music:

Unsolved Mysteries, Jon Lynn and Colin Alexander, River Club, 3 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 9-10 p.m.

Helado Negro, Roberto Lange, River Club, 10-11 p.m.

Prayer Town, Phil Ashley and Patrick Parker, River Club, 11 p.m. – midnight