Marin Museum of Contemporary Art presents a sampling of contemporary art on a national scale with its upcoming Fall National Exhibition. The show includes established and emerging artists working in steel, plastic, acrylic and fabric. Artists from all over the country applied to be included in the exhibition, and the artworks selected by the juror will be on exhibit from August 30 to October 5. The juror for this year’s exhibition is Betti-Sue Hertz. She has been the Director of Visual Arts at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for five years. Previously she served as the curator of the contemporary art at the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) from 2000-2008 and was the director of Longwood Arts Project, Bronx, New York from 1992-1998. She co-organized (with Lydia Yee) Urban Mythologies: The Bronx Represented Since the 1960s (1999) for the Bronx Museum of the Arts. The exhibition includes a colorful piece by Margaret Withers titled “Sudden Prosperities of Sunlight”. She used gouache, vinyl paint, ink, watercolor on paper to communicate her creativity. Withers believes “that creativity is a primary language that we are born with and is the means by which we communicate our creative impulses.” Alex Moses’ “Ark” does not employ color, but instead relies on a monochromatic palette to echo and critique what society values and teaches in his sculpture featuring a modern-day ark populated by cultural icons such as Big Bird and the Hamburglar. Xiao Fu speaks of the impact an environment has on its residents’ emotions in this piece, “Hiding”, made of steel wire. She states, “My goal in creating art is to allow a viewer the opportunity to observe contemporary social constructs from a distance, providing them with a new perspective.” Her life size wire sculpture suggest a human form consumed by swirling inner emotions. These pieces are among the 50 artworks included in this stimulating show, which opens with a reception to be held on August 30 from 5 to 7pm. Admission is free. Running concurrent with the Fall National Exhibit is MarinMOCA’s First Annual Juried Member Exhibit titled “Rising Tides - Shifting Boundaries,” juried by artist and environmentalist Mary Eubank.