May brings rising artists on the move and familiar names back on the scene. Here's a brief look at a few of the Bay's openings and art events, just in time for First Thursday.
“CCA MFA Exhibition 2010”
Spring is here -- and the grads have sprung. Each year budding makers rise to the occasion at assorted MFAs shows around the Bay and one of the strongest batches usually emerges each year from California College of the Arts. Local curators will be poking around the MFA studios, as the artists mill about -- it’s a big group at 66 strong this year, working in a wide range of media. They’re interested in a range of issues that reflect a “world in transition,” according to organizing faculty member Glenn Helfand. Look for insight via the exhibition’s cell phone audio tour, which includes artist interviews and an intro by former Wattis Institute director Lawrence Rinder, now director of the Berkeley Art Museum.
Opening Thursday, May 6, 6-9 p.m., free. Exhibition runs through May 15. CCA, 1111 Eighth St., SF. After-party at Thee Parkside, 1600 17th St., SF. cca.edu 
Further Book Signing
Robots and cyber-infrastructures are the focus of Further, a visual dialogue and book collaboration involving seven artists and friends: NoMe Edonna, Robert Hardgrave, David Chong Lee, MARS-1, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Damon Soule and Oliver Vernon. What do they have in common? They’re not afraid to look back to surrealism, while looking ahead to a robotic future. SFMOMA gathers all seven artists in a rare book-signing event.
Thursday, May 6, 6:30 p.m., free. Schwab Room, SFMOMA, 151 Third St., SF. 415-357-4035, sfmoma.stores.yahoo.net/further.html
“Robert Hudson: Sculpture & Drawing”
The Bay Area Funk assemblage artist who made his name in the ‘60s unveils recent mixed media sculpture, made with colorful, crazy-quilt fragments of found metal: scrolled ironwork pops up, like unruly, furled ferns, beside toothy saw blades and ragged ruffled bits of housing rubble. There are also moody, spiraling abstractions rendered with ink on paper. An intriguing companion show to the retrospective of his sometime collaborator William T. Wiley at the Berkeley Art Museum. Through May 15. Patricia Sweetow Gallery, 77 Geary St., mezzanine, SF. 415-788-5126. patriciasweetowgallery.com
“Jennifer Karady: In Country -- Soldiers’ Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan”
The photographer gets close to American veterans with staged narrative portraits that strive to capture the psychological impact of war -- and individual stories -- as soldiers return to the civilian world.
Opening Thursday, May 6, 5-8 p.m. Exhibit runs through Aug. 7. SF Camerawork, 657 Mission St., SF. 415-512-2020. sfcamerawork.org/index.php
