Last week Art Professor Mark Johnson was made a knight of Sweden, a title formally called Officer First Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star.

Gail Dawson, assistant professor of Art, has a solo exhibition of her painting and video animation works, "It's About Time," at the San Marco Gallery at Dominican University in San Rafael from Feb. 7 to March 9. At 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, Dawson will give a talk at the gallery.

"AfroCuba Works on Paper, 1968 - 2003," an exhibition curated by Art Professor Judith Bettelheim, garnered a rave review in the Miami Herald on Jan. 20.In her review, the Herald's Fabiola Santiago called the exhibition "groundbreaking," "unusual and extraordinary."

Photo-based aintings, drawings and watercolors by Professor Emeritus of Art Robert Bechtle helped define an era of middle-class America: suburban streetscapes and homes, station wagons and family barbecues. His work also was key in defining the photorealism style, now enjoying a revival after his retrospective exhibition that premiered at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2005 and traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the following year.Bechtle and photorealism's renewed interest are the subject of the cover story in the January edition of Art + Auction magazine. One of Bechtle's signature works, "Agua Caliente 1975," graces the magazine's cover.

Art graduate student Lizabeth Eva Rossof will represent herself at GEISAI's juried Pulse Miami art fair from Dec. 4 to 10. She is one of 20 artists selected among 716 applicants from 53 countries.Rossof, who studies in the Conceptual and Information Arts program, focuses her work on intervention, installation and digital media. She strives to bring awareness to objects and ideas that would normally be considered "mundane." She gains inspiration by asking herself questions of placement, legitimacy, definition, absurdity, cultural iconography and the meaning behind those icons in history.