PepperAlley

Opens Saturday Apr 19 (6–9pm)

Apr 22 – May 17

Tuesdays–Saturdays

@ DCA Fine Art, 3107 Pico Blvd in Santa Monica

In Icon, two innovative, European-born painters explore the concept of worship in postmodernist life. Bogdan Dumitrica's portraits of animals and pop-art icons find themes of attraction and dominance within everyday items. Doro Hofmann's references range from Byzantine idolatry to female dadaists to cubist methodologies — her work brings the increasingly cult-like and consumerist nature of worship into high relief.

Opens Saturday Apr 19 (5–7pm)

Apr 19 – May 17

Tuesdays–Saturdays

@ Richard Heller Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave in Santa Monica

Consummate visual storyteller Evah Fan continues her Scheherazade-like seduction with a new batch of works at Richard Heller Gallery. Her small drawings of mundane, everyday objects — manila envelopes, reading glasses, sport water bottles — are whimsical and sweet on the outside, and subversively sour on the inside. It's this duality that makes her work so tempting, as the simplistic narratives often distract from a more sinister plot. A concurrent solo show of work by Randall Sellers tells stories too, but in a different style. Sellers' graphite drawings use a vintage, post-illustration sensibility to spin charming, romantic, and slightly cheeky tales.

Opens Saturday Apr 19 (10am–1pm)

Apr 19 – May 24

Tuesdays–Saturdays (11am–6pm)

@ Samuel Freeman, 2525 Michigan Ave in Santa Monica

Cheeky artist Masami Teraoka is most famous for his ukiyo-e woodblock paintings, which combine Japanese imagery, themes from American culture, and a mischievous sense of humor. His most recent work continues his exploration of global culture clashes — from Viagra to the sex crimes committed by the Catholic Church, and from global warming to fast-food culture, Teraoka's art acts as a barometer for hot-button issues, tackling each of his subjects with unrestrained aesthetic gusto.

Saturday Apr 19 (11:30am–3:30pm)

@ Fowler Museum, UCLA, Westwood Plz & Sunset Blvd

The Fowler hosts this afternoon's costume-optional festival of mermaids and other angels of the sea in conjunction with the museum's ongoing Mami Wata exhibition (about the African water-spirit) and in partnership with environmental caretakers Heal the Bay. Between parades, a performance from the Viver Brasil Dance Company, percussionists Balobi Bandeko, maritime-themed art classes, and aquatic petting zoos, Splash! may convince you that indeed, life is better down where it's wetter.

Saturday Apr 19 (4pm)

@ Skylight Books, 1818 N Vermont Ave

Eat your heart out, 17th-century Paris — the literary salon has been reborn in the cozy maze of Los Feliz's Skylight Books. For the store's new monthly series, the staff highlights its favorite works from three independent, nonprofit publishers. Brooklyn-based Archipelago releases translations of books ranging from Korean to Croatian; Red Hen Press, a local house that hosts a reading series at the Geffen Playhouse, publishes poetry, fiction, and memoirs; and Dzanc, founded by Steve Gillis of 826Michigan, specializes in independent-minded literature. Sip some wine, eat some chèvre, and schmooze over Rilke translations and grad-student poetry like it's Paris, 1673.

Opens Saturday Apr 19 (7pm–midnight)

Apr 20 – May 12

Mondays–Fridays (9am–6pm)

Saturdays–Sundays (noon–4pm)

@ Ghettogloss, 2380 Glendale Blvd in Silverlake

Sue-Ling Hyde is more than a pretty face. You might recognize her from modeling gigs with Shiseido, Versus, and Moshino, but the Puerto Rican artist (who, incidentally, is married to Passion's James Hyde) has been passionate about painting for as long as she can remember, constantly doodling on anything she could get her hands on (napkins, pizza boxes, appointment books). At least now Hyde has a slightly more appropriate forum: Silverlake's Ghettogloss exhibits a new collection of her paintings, inspired, she says, "only by love."

Saturday Apr 19 (8pm)

@ The Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd in W Hollywood

Sarah Silverman goes where others fear to tread, performing take-no-prisoners standup routines that regularly make audiences split their sides (or struggle to hold down their food, depending on the subject matter). Tonight, the tart-tongued Jewess steps away from the second season of her Showtime series for a charitable gig. The Troubadour's South Toward Home Benefit Concert helps repair and rebuild the Gulf Coast. Joining Silverman is local indie-rock outfit Foreign Born, performance weirdos Tim and Eric, and Reno 911's shorts-wearing funnyman Thomas Lennon.

Saturday Apr 19 (9pm)

@ Pehrspace, 325 Glendale Blvd in Echo Park

Somehow, Echo Park art-and-performance space Pehrspace has successfully built a home for visual art and independent music in the back of a Filipinotown strip mall. Tonight, the space welcomes Ohio-based band State Bird, who play a twee amalgam of indie weirdos like Animal Collective and Of Montreal mixed with the gospel sing-alongs of the Polyphonic Spree. On their just-released sophomore release, Mostly Ghostly, they incorporate a bevy of instruments — brass, world-beat percussion, and copious amounts of ukulele — alongside jumpy, exuberant vocals. State Bird play tonight with Philadelphia's A Sunny Day in Glasgow and Pasadena's No Little Kindness.

Saturday Apr 19 (10pm–2am)

@ Charlie O's at the Alexandria, 501 S Spring St

Hysteria Dance Company designer Ryan Heffington and his troupe of busy avant-garde dancers take over Charlie O's for this month's Fingered party, a combination dance class, performance, and bacchanalia featuring the kind of sensual, eye-popping moves that make indie-dance lovers swoon. The instructional part comes early in the evening, followed by a steamy DJ set from the Count of Monte Disco before the main event: the debut appearance of fashion/performance collective We Are the World.

But it also lowers the price per share for the maker of the 'Grand Theft Auto' video game series.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., publisher of the popular "Grand Theft Auto" video game series, said it wanted more time to consider a $2-billion buyout by larger rival Electronic Arts Inc. and it wanted more money. On Friday, half its wish came true.

Their team repeats an earlier experiment and finds consistent results, but critics say its claims are still questionable.

An Italian team on Wednesday renewed its claim to have discovered evidence for the existence of dark matter, the invisible material that makes up the bulk of the universe.

Cambridge University Library posts about 20,000 items and 90,000 images relating to the naturalist that had been accessible only to scholars.

The first draft of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" is among a wealth of papers belonging to the intensely private man who changed science that have been published on the Internet for the first time.