The new Art Galleries are housed in the new addition to the university's Art and Design Center on the north end of the campus on Plummer Street just east of Etiwanda Avenue.

"In selecting an exhibition for the new gallery spaces, art utilizing light seemed an obvious choice to define the architecture. Add the exuberant allure of neon, and the inaugural exhibition would be a festive occasion to celebrate our look to the future," said Louise Lewis, director of the Art Galleries. "While the art of Lili Lakich satisfies both these criteria, it is her provocative use of both the vernacular and vanguard applications of neon, with their appeal to a wide audience, that determined our choice."

The public will get a chance to explore the new Art Galleries on Saturday, Feb. 17, when the Arts Council for CSUN hosts a special reception celebrating the opening of Lakich's exhibition. The 8 p.m. reception, featuring a live performance by Soul Dogs, is free and open to the public.

The Art Galleries were relocated as a result of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which devastated their old home in the Art Department at the south end of the campus in the Fine Arts Building. Funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided the university with an opportunity to not just replace, but dramatically improve the teaching and exhibition facilities lost in the earthquake.

The Art Galleries are part of a new 55,000-square-foot addition to the university's Art and Design Center. The addition, designed by Fields Devereaux Architects and Engineers, also houses facilities for painting, drawing, animation, video, graphic design, art education and computer labs. The addition surrounds the existing facilities for sculpture, ceramics, wood, textiles, printmaking and the Visual Arts Resource Library.

Lewis said Lakich's multi-faceted art will be seen to optimal advantage in the new galleries. "Whether for commercial business or for art institutions, Lakich has maintained a fluid balance in her creativity, utilizing both personal esthetic experimentation and pop culture iconography in whatever she produces," Lewis said. "Her willingness to create an installation for our exhibition, a new genre for her, accentuates her commitment to exploring new possibilities in her art."

Lakich's show includes the premiere of her first installation piece, Sirens, a site-specific work completed this year, and Other Neon Selections, a selection of her works dating from 1973.

Lakich, co-founder of the Museum of Neon Art, has had solo shows in Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles. Her sculptures have been included in major publications on contemporary and neon sculpture as well as feminist art. Her pieces are in many private and corporate collections.

Sirens is a generic watering hole somewhere in the Southern California suburban desert. The bar's seven-foot sign on the exterior wall is a seductive mermaid in multi-colored neon enticing patrons to a raucous, yet seductive spot. Inside the bar, one is mesmerized by the luminosity of the commercial beer signs and the coterie of archetypal bar habitués, lonely yet hopeful in their quest for companionship. As the visual narrative unfolds, this escapist oasis becomes an allegorical tableau of the perennial concerns of its occupants.

The Other Neon Seductions of the exhibition's title comprise a dazzling array of 23 works executed by the artist between 1973 and 1993.

The exhibition continues through March 31. Hours are 12 to 4 p.m. on Monday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The Art Galleries will host a special public viewing of Lakich's show on Sunday, Feb. 18, from 12 to 4 p.m.

Lakich will talk about her work during a free lecture at 10 a.m. at the Galleries on Monday, Feb. 19.

The exhibition is funded in part by the CSUN Instructionally Related Activities Committee, the CSUN Associated Students, Inc., the Arts Council for CSUN, the CSUN Department of Art, the CSUN College of Arts, Media, and Communication, and by Anheuser-Busch Inc., Joy Barnes, Frances Hanckel and Brenda Paschall.

A catalog is available. For more information about the exhibition, call (818) 677-2226.