Ice, Ice, Baby—So, the other day I'm riding my bicycle over to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science to see the exhibit they've got on display about Antarctica. It's the middle of the afternoon and hot as hell. I'm really sweatin' it up. Pedaling madly in that insane heat, I'm not even at the show yet, and I'm already daydreaming about emperor penguins and big, wide, white plains of frigid Antarctic ice. Once I finally get inside, it only takes a few minutes to feel fully immersed in that other world. They've even piped in Antarctic sounds—howling winds, creaking ice—to aid in the illusion.

Janet Lippincott, one of the few remaining New Mexico Modernists, settled in Santa Fe more than 50 years ago. Before calling New Mexico home, Lippincott received formal training in New York and Colorado and became familiar with Picasso’s cubistic innovations while living in Paris with her family. After serving in the Women’s Army Corps during WWII, she attended Emil Bistram’s Taos Art School. Janet Lippincott: Six Decades of Works on Paper is a collection of Lippincott’s abstract and figurative ink-and-watercolor paintings on paper from the '40s through the '60s as well as monotypes printed in the '70s through the '90s. The show opens with a reception on Aug. 12 from 4 to 7 p.m. and runs through Sept. 15 at Artspace 116 (116 Central SW, Suite 201) Mondays-Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 245-4200 or visit www.artspace116.org.

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The mainstream art world can be dirty, deceptive and painfully exclusive, especially for scrappy unknown artists struggling to make names for themselves. For whatever reason, money too often trumps artistic merit, and nepotism seems to rule the day. Thankfully, events like this weekend's We Art The People Folk Art Festival exist to pull the arts back down to Earth where they belong.

You've got to be some kind of literary masochist to be willing to take a long, unflinching look at your own personal history—warts, cold sores, pimples and all—then share what you find with a bunch of complete strangers. All the best memoirs in the world, though, are fueled by precisely this kind of fearlessness, and J.R. Moehringer's stunning memoir, The Tender Bar, is no exception.

Africa, written by the most acclaimed and widely produced playwright in Korea, Tae-Sok Oh, will have its premier performance in the United States performed by Rough Theater at N4th Theatre. Rough Theatre is committed to creating new works that reflect, explore, inspire and challenge, which makes them an appropriate theater company to perform Oh’s Africa. The play deals with themes of global terrorism and the absurdity of racism and religious hatred. Africa opens Aug. 11 and runs through Aug. 27, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 general, $8 students and seniors. After the Friday and Saturday shows, stay to see The Entrapment Zones at 10:30, a late-night series modeled after the "Twilight Zone." Tickets $5. For all tickets and information, call the N4th Theatre (4904 Fourth Street NW) at 345-2872 or visit www.vsartsnm.org.