"Seasonal sightings"

Winter quarter is the perfect time to explore Ohio State’s galleries, where new exhibitions feature works ranging from contemporary sculpture and cartoons to large-scale paintings and 400-year-old books.

At the Wexner Center for the Arts, new exhibitions are unveiled on Jan. 27. In “Cubes and Anarchy,” roughly 80 pieces by famed sculptor David Smith are displayed, including monumental sculptures created in the 1960s. The film “Points on a Line,” by Sarah Morris, takes viewers on a journey from Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Illinois. The Wex’s lobby will be transformed, too, thanks to a colorful, site-specific wall painting by Ernst Caramelle.

The Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus also bears the works of fresh exhibitions. Themes of energy, progress, and consumption infuse “Tracing Lines” through March 24. “Object/Imprint,” through March 3, is the culmination of regional artists who have remained fixated on objects while transitioning into nontraditional mediums.

Lovers of The Bard should head to Thompson Library for “Year of Shakespeare: The Exhibit,” through April 29. Rare books, old playbills, and original costume designs from Shakespeare-inspired productions are among the materials displayed, which include a piece that dates back to 1632.

Other exhibitions at Ohio State this winter:

• “Columbus Cartoonists: A Bicentennial Celebration,” a showcase of works by James Thurber, Milton Caniff, and other cartoonists who have called Ohio’s capital home, Jan. 23-April 27 at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
• “Recent Arrivals,” featuring the works of graduate art students, through Jan. 26 in the Swing Space Gallery.
• “Global Textile Trades” at the Gladys Keller Snowden Gallery through Feb. 18.
• “CONFLUX” at the Pearl Conrad Art Gallery at Ohio State Mansfield, with pieces from 25 artists working at the intersection of art, technology, and science, through March 2.
• “HOMESAKES,” works by Amy Powell and Daniel Pritchard, through Feb. 3 at the Kuhn Fine Arts Gallery at Ohio State Marion.