Pittsburgh-based installation artist Patricia Villalobos Echeverria and West Virginia University art professor Gerald Harbarth will be featured in new exhibitions opening at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Mesaros Galleries at WVU s Creative Arts Center.

The Echeverria exhibit will be open through Dec. 8, and the Harbarth exhibit through Nov. 17.

The reception, lecture, and gallery exhibitions are free and open to the public.

Harbarth came to WVU in the fall of 2005. He holds a master of fine arts degree in painting from the University of South Florida and a bachelor of fine arts in painting from Parsons School of Design.

Originally from Maryland, Harbarth spent most of the 1990s living in Santiago, Chile, and traveled throughout much of South America.

His work is characterized by the synthesis of painting, drawing, electronic media and the moving image, trying to find a meaningful tension between the handmade and the computerized.

For more information about his work, see www.geraldharbarth.com .

Echeverra was born in Tennessee of Salvadorian parents and raised in Nicaragua and the United States. Her work is based in issues involving transcultural identity, gender and the body. Echeverras installations, videos, prints, and photos are exhibited nationally and internationally.

Her recent works include printing photo-based images through large screens onto various surfaces, including large-scale black and white photographs and canvas.

Echeverra lives in Pittsburgh and is currently professor of art at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She received her master of fine arts degree in printmaking and painting from WVU in 1990.

More information can be found at www.patriciavillalobos.com .

Echeverra will present a visiting artist lecture about her work at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A) of the Creative Arts Center.

Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, from noon to 9:30 p.m.; Friday from noon to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. The galleries are closed Sundays and university holidays. Special individual or group viewing times may be arranged upon request.

For more information, contact Robert Bridges, curator, at 304-293-4841, ext. 3210, or 304-293-2312.