"Mirando al Sur/Mirando al Norte," which features the interpretive pieces as well as the originals that inspired them, opens Saturday, Oct. 15, in CSUN's Main Gallery. The exhibition will continue through Nov. 19.

CSUN journalism professor Kent Kirkton, a Mexican folk art collector and co-curator of the show, said he hopes the exhibition will spark conversations about the relationship between tradition and innovation, style and substance and the geographical contexts of the art.

More significantly, he said, it recognizes the importance of the flow of ideas from south to north and north to south and counters the notions that the traditions of California art travel only on an east-west axis.

"In a broad sense, we hope to bring some attention to the extent to which we in California have been influenced aesthetically and iconographically by traditional arts in Mexico," Kirkton said.

Kirkton and co-curator Sybil Venegas of East Los Angeles Community College selected individual Mexican folk art pieces, including pottery, jewelry, carved wood, textiles and papier mache by such acclaimed masters as Miguel Linares, Angel Santos, Salvador Vasquez, Zenon Martinez, Adrian Luis Gonzalez and Ignazio Punzo. The co-curators then asked the L.A. artists to respond to the Mexican work with their own unique interpretations.

Among the known Los Angeles artists they asked to participate were Magu (Gilbert Lujan), Leo Limon, Margaret Garcia, Eloy Torres, Alfredo de Batuc, Barbara Carasco, Diane Gambo and Wayne Alaniz-Healy, as well as emerging artists Man One, Susan Elizalde-Holler and David Flury.

"A lot of the artists have been working with these things for a long time," Kirkton said. "The exhibition just brings some attention to the thoughtfulness and seriousness of their work, even when some of it is presented in a whimsical manner. I think the exhibition will make clear the richness of the statements they are making."

A reception celebrating the opening of the exhibition is scheduled to take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, at CSUN's Art Galleries. The festivities will include a performance by Willy Loya and the Trio de Alma and a lowrider exhibition by The Duke's Car Club.

A gallery talk about the exhibition is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 17.

The Art Galleries are located on North University Drive (Plummer Street) just east of Etiwanda Avenue at the north end of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. Gallery hours are from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Parking is available at $4 a day in Lots B6 and E6.

For more information about Mirando al Sur/Mirando al Norte, call the CSUN Art Galleries at (818) 677-2156 or visit the Web site www.csun.edu/artgalleries/.

The exhibition is underwritten in part by Telemundo Los Angeles and Wells Fargo Bank, in partnership with the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Additional funding comes from CSUN's Instructionally Related Activities Committee, Associated Students, Inc., the Arts Council for CSUN, the departments of art, journalism and Chicano/a studies, the Center for Photojournalism and Visual History, and the College of Arts, Media, and Communication.

(Editor's note: Photos available upon request .)