Ten artists from this year's reunion classes will exhibit their work at the second annual Cornell University alumni art exhibition June 3 through 14 in the John Hartell Gallery in Sibley Hall.

The public is invited to attend an opening reception Friday, June 7, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the gallery. In addition, Franklin W. Robinson, director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, will present a public gallery talk at the exhibition on Saturday, June 8, at 3 p.m.

More than 30 works -- most of which are for sale -- will be exhibited at the alumni show, representing a wide range of artistic talent in various media, from watercolor and oil to computer graphics and web page design.

"We're delighted to have such a varied show," said Jean Locey, professor and chair of Cornell's Department of Art. "It's important for us to showcase the work of our successful alumni."

Sandra Albert Wittow's artwork hangs in the Denver Art Museum, the University of Colorado and in numerous private collections. "I've been very fortunate to have been able to continue painting since graduating from Cornell," said Wittow, who earned her BFA from Cornell in 1956.

Her greatest source of influence was novelist and former Cornell professor Vladimir Nabokov. "I learned from his ideas, his attention to detail and his devotion to research," said Wittow, speaking from her home in Englewood, Colo.

Wittow, a student in Nabokov's European fiction and contemporary writers classes at Cornell, would draw pictures and diagrams on the blackboard for Nabokov to use in his lectures.

Some 40 years after studying with Nabokov, Wittow has paid tribute to the scholar and author in a narrative portrait. "I did the portrait out of my admiration of Nabokov and in recognition of the inspiration he gave me," she said. "I took the image from his autobiography, in which he describes himself as a 'flash of light floating through a dark universe,' and from my recollections of him."

The Nabokov portrait is one of four pieces Wittow has submitted for the alumni art exhibition. Also included by Wittow is a portrait of the Italian painter Carlo Crivelli and a self- portrait. The Nabokov and Crivelli pieces are available for sale.

For her narrative portraits, Wittow interviews her subjects to better understand their lives, she said, and she hopes her research will translate to her canvas something more than just a snapshot of the subject. "I'm trying to discover the particular themes that have remained constant in one's life," she said. "I want people to be able to look at my portraits and learn more about the subjects than their physical appearance."

Wittow's classmate Barbara Erdman '56 also will exhibit her work, which includes mixed media monoprints. "This will be the first time I've exhibited at Cornell since I was a student," she said recently.

Erdman said her work has matured and has become more complex since the days she dabbled in Cornell's art studios. Her Broken Borders series is influenced by the Persian miniature paintings of the mid-1500s. These paintings, often of kings and royal subjects, would have as a feature a sword or some other element breaking through the painting's border. A print from Broken Borders will be included in the alumni exhibition as well as three other monoprints.

Erdman, who makes her home in Sante Fe, N. M., has had solo exhibitions at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Center for the Arts, Sante Fe Center for Photography and Aspen Institute. In 1994, her show titled "Mathematical Models & Other Matters" was featured at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.

Nina Sobell '71, from New York City, is an artist who first began to use electronics when she videotaped participants' undirected interactions with her giant movable sculptures as her master's thesis at Cornell. Her work in the field since then has included an interactive public-access video/EEG interface and a public-access videophone interface, and the installation of a matrix of oscillating cameras in a New York City storefront.

Sobell's most recent project has been a collaboration with video artist Emily Hartzell on a public-access network of kiosks in Manhattan, incorporating the World Wide Web and videophones and serving cable TV. In addition, she continues to produce sculpture, lithographs and drawings. Her exhibit at Cornell -- "Artistheatre: Sculpture Performance Archives" -- will be presented online, with a computer connection to the Web, via Netscape.

Also featured in the exhibition are:

• From the Class of 1971 -- Leslie K. Brill of Brooklyn; Joel S. Carreiro of Upper Nyack, N.Y.; Lisa Romm of Brooktondale, N.Y.; and Nina G. Schwartz of Alexandria, Va.
• From the Class of 1961 -- Margaret Doorey Hepburn of Sussex, England; and Karl Rosenberg of Brooklyn.
• From the Class of 1966 -- Elizabeth Roubloff Zeisler of Potomac, Md.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, June 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, June 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.