Today is the last chance to view a collection of solo work by new printmaking instructor Toru Sugita that includes a rope installation outside the DVC Art Gallery.

The installation, titled “Connecting,” stretches across the quad of the art department buildings and was placed there by Sugita in afternoon light.

“The ropes reflect the ambient architecture,” he wrote in his artist statement about the piece. “Ropes/lines become a temporary extension of the architecture.”

They not only add an aesthetic complexity to the building, but represent the connection between the different disciplines of the department, he wrote.

The collection features Sugita’s paintings, videos, and a variety of etching, wood engraving, woodblock, lithography and digital prints.

Its variety delighted the large crowd of students, professors and gallery visitors who turned out Feb. 3 for the opening reception.

“I like it because it’s different,” said first-semester student Shane Gallegos. “I’m used to metal press, and this has the same kind of look but it’s done differently.”

Many students lingered over the prints, most of which were done in black and white and focused on shapes and shadows of landscapes, buildings and still life studies.

Sugita’s pieces show dramatic portraits of everyday sights, many of which sharply contrast objects in a single view and emphasize the shadows in a scene.

“I’m just blown away,” said Jorge Meza, another first-semester student on a break from his nearby class.

Most visitors had similar reactions.

“I’m so impressed,” gushed one gallery visitor as she and Sugita studied a series of black and white etchings.

“You are?” asked a surprised Sugita.

He, then quickly responded to his own question with, “No, I don’t know.”

This is Sugita’s second semester at DVC, having taught at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo., since 2006.

He has shown his artwork throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Latin America and was an artist and art educator in the Bay Area for 14 years before moving to Colorado.

Sugita is now establishing printmaking programs at DVC.

His pieces in this show date back to 1992, but most were created in the last decade.

Sugita said his primary motive in developing this collection was to express the changes in light and shadow in the buildings and scenes around him.

“Buildings are not static,” he said. “They keep changing.”

As illustration, he pointed to a picture of the Bay Bridge with a background that no longer exists in real life.

“Shadows and buildings have a short life, like me,” Sugita explains. “Like me, I have a short life. Everything changes.”

The gallery is open today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Contact Annie Sciacca at [email protected]