By Marie-Elena Schembri

Welcome to October in Sacramento! Along with crisp mornings, sunny afternoons and streets filled with amber leaves, Sacramento brings a host of chilling and thrilling arts and cultural events to help you celebrate the season.

Spirited traditions & Seasonal Fun

If you’re looking for art that will get you into the festive spirit, you’ll want to check out these seasonal events.

The Souls of the City DÍa de los Muertos Festival in Old Sacramento makes its return on Saturday, Oct. 26. This annual event, hosted by arts and culture nonprofit Sol Collective, recognizes the Mesoamerican tradition and holiday of DÍa de los Muertos — or Day of the Dead. This festival is a vibrant cultural event that includes ceremonial dance, live music and the building of ofrendas (altars) to honor the dead. It’s a time to celebrate with family and welcome the spirits of those who have passed on. Bring a photo of a loved one to place on the altar and enjoy making sugar skulls and flower crowns while perusing handmade art and crafts.

The Oddities & Curiosities Expo takes place the same weekend, Oct. 26-27, and promises “hand-selected vendors, dealers, artists and small businesses with all things weird.” From the macabre to the bizarre, those looking for creepy fun will enjoy perusing items such as “taxidermy, preserved specimens, original artwork, horror/Halloween inspired pieces, antiques, handcrafted oddities, quack medical devices, creepy clothing, odd jewelry, skulls/bones, funeral collectibles & much more,” according to the event page.

DÍa De los Muertos Fiesta at California Museum: Sat. Oct. 12 is the California Museum’s annual Day of the Dead festival, coinciding with the opening of a new exhibit,  “Arte de Inspiración: Dia de los Muertos 2024.” The Fiesta will include artist appearances, cultural foods, music, dance, workshops and hands-on activities for all ages. A Mercado de los Muertos pop-up market will feature local artists and artisans. Tickets can be purchased online (presale only) and are expected to sell out. No tickets will be available at the event.

The exhibit opens with a reception at 6 p.m. on Oct. 12, featuring altars by artist Krisztianna, duo John Hancock and Juan Ramos and Adrián Arias, dedicated to notable Californians who have inspired their artistic practice: labor activist Helen Fabela Chávez; labor activist Larry Itliong; and artist-activists René Yáñez and Yolanda López.

Spirits of the Season Art Exhibition at Atrium 916: A group exhibition celebrating the “thinning of the veil” with both Halloween-inspired art and Dia de los Muertos. While the two are culturally distinct, this exhibition “merges the eerie charm of Halloween with the rich traditions of Day of the Dead.” An opening reception takes place Oct. 3 at Atrium’s gallery on Front Street in Old Sacramento, and will include a costume contest (with complimentary wine for those who participate) and a community altar.

“Bat HabiTAT” is a new exhibit from The City of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture featuring bat-themed art to raise awareness of the ecological significance of this misunderstood winged creature.

Drawing inspiration from live bat observations at the Yolo Basin Foundation, 10 Northern California tattoo artists and one origami artist have created art honoring the small flying mammal for its contributions beyond spooky Halloween decorations and enigmatic horror characters.

Curated by the city’s Emerging Curators Fellow Bridgètt Rex, the exhibit runs through Dec. 13 at the City Hall Robert T. Matsui Gallery with art by Pony Goodwin, Vash Parsi, Shaina Hernandez and more.

Otherworldly Exhibits

Sacramento photographer Brian Seek’s long-exposure photography exhibit, “The Night Lights,” brings an otherworldly collection of black and white images to Midtown’s Viewpoint Photographic Art Center. The photographs were shot at night with exposures of one to several minutes with Seek’s vintage Mamiya C330 twin-lens reflex film camera before being printed in a darkroom.

Dramatizing ordinary street scenes, pitch-black skies contrast with the glow of neon signs, light from second-story apartment windows or the headlights of an invisible passing vehicle.

“It’s a way to see a very blatant example of what a photographer sees in their mind … in this kind of photography, the contrast is so rich and so high that I’m making a lot of choices about what I want the person to see and not see in these photos,” Seek said.

Alongside the images will be accessibility aids and QR codes that will take viewers to a webpage with journal-like descriptions; humorous quips and tidbits of personal trivia explaining the images’ subjects or locations. The exhibit runs from Oct. 9-Nov. 2, with a Second Saturday reception on Oct. 12 from 4-7 p.m.

Finally, an interactive online exhibit, “Digital Souls Unfolding”, curated by digital artist Ruben Reveles, brings viewers to an alternate reality where digital and traditional art are shown side by side in a virtual gallery.

Alongside Reveles’ vibrant digital images and video, high resolution images of paintings by Jennifer Peart and Michelle Dahl, and photography by Roberta Alvarado can be viewed on the walls of the virtual space by “walking” a custom avatar around or navigating to the artworks from icons at the bottom of the screen. 

Peart commented during the show’s opening on the accessibility of the virtual gallery, which could be beneficial in connecting audiences of all kinds with art outside of traditional spaces. Reveles has long wanted to collaborate with other artists in the “metaverse,” but this was his first time curating a VR exhibit. “To me, this is the future of the (art) gallery,” Reveles said.

While inside the gallery, which is hosted on the Anasea platform, viewers can zoom in to view details, click to read artwork information and artist statements and even purchase art through the virtual space. The exhibit opened on Sept. 26 and will be accessible through October, with additional artwork to be added.

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.