Explore the gallery scene

From the Shrem, head into downtown Davis. You can park in the hulking concrete structure known as the Art Garage, or just find on-street parking. Then make your way to First Street and the John Natsoulas Gallery, home of “Calico Cat,” “Roy the Dog” and more.

“I was a faculty brat,” Natsoulas says — his father taught at UC Davis. After high school, the younger Natsoulas left town, went overseas, played jazz, studied botany in England and worked for a time for Amnesty International. Somewhere along the way, he says, “I realized I never wanted to do anything except be involved in art and music.” Returning to Davis to visit family, he thought he might be able to make that dream come true here.

He bought the little house — “I had to pawn my saxophone,” he says — and opened a gallery. Today, a couple of decades later, it’s a spacious four-story affair with a large gallery displaying contemporary paintings and ceramics, a bookshop (Natsoulas has himself published a number of art books) and a rooftop sculpture garden.

The gallery also hosts Friday night jazz sessions and poetry readings. One big annual event is coming up April 28-30 — the California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art. Artists such as Arneson helped make Davis became a nationally known center for ceramic arts; this conference continues the tradition, drawing artists from all over the country, and hosting special exhibits at the Natsoulas Gallery and elsewhere in town.

A few blocks away, the Pence Gallery is ambitious and so urbane that it gives you the sense that you’ve wandered from Davis into SoMa, until you remember how little you’ve paid to park here.