Back beat

The poets and musicians are gone from the John Natsoulas Gallery’s beat conference earlier this month, but you can still check out the visual art, through December 4, in Beat Generation: The Art of Wondering at 521 First Street in Davis. Seymour Locks’ untitled mixed-media piece, with myriad nails hammered into a chunk of a tree, semi-wrapped in mangled metal and adorned with knobs that mimic fungus, makes for a sculpture you’ll keep walking around. Horst Trave’s “November 22, 1960” splashes on canvas an image of light akin to the dancing skylights of the Aurora Borealis. Closer, you can see the hairline cracks in the egg tempera, like those on the “Mona Lisa.” There’s also a telling collection of photos from “The Scene,” multi-faceted glimpses of the energy that swirled around the beats. The most fun is a 1961 photo of a woman standing in the center of Jay DeFeo’s big “Eyes” painting. For more information, call (530) 756-3938.