Out There trucked out to the Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park last week to catch up with two exhibits there.

The veteran New Yorker magazine cartoonist Roz Chast is now the subject of "Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs," a large, thoroughly entertaining exhibition that opened last week at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

"The Grain of the Present" at Pier 24 includes works surveying everyday existence by 10 distinctive photographers who form the backbone of the collection.

Visual acuity and verbal eloquence are abilities that rarely inhabit the same person in equal measure; photographer Larry Sultan is one of the exceptions to the rule.

The 400-plus-object show, mostly drawn from the museum's permanent collection, is unapologetically superficial, and that's cool. I mean, when is the last time you've been to a museum that quoted Jerry Garcia?

Imagine Duke Ellington with a paintbrush instead of tinkling piano keys, and you have the verve and on-the-move vibe of American artist Stuart Davis.

Dust off that Stravinsky recording and dance a pagan rite to spring, because contemporary art is blooming at local galleries. Here's a sampling.

It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood movie: A young art student encounters the work of an elder master, and his life and career are altered forever. But that is the actual real-life narrative that began in 1943.

It's difficult to picture Claude Monet as a young starving artist, little-known outside a small coterie of fellow artists, critics and collectors, but indeed, he was once just that. So how did he emerge from deprivation, sacrifice and relative obscurity?

"Tomb Treasures: New Discoveries from China's Han Dynasty" is yet another tour de force from the Asian Art Museum.

How can you have a show about the counterculture that's short on sex, drugs and rock & roll? The answer is: With difficulty. But that's not all that's missing from "Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia."

Reduced-scale versions of five of the six "Burghers" are on view at the Legion of Honor in a special exhibition marking the centenary of Rodin's death, and 50 of the French sculptor's works from the museum's permanent collection are on display.

Droll humor, self-deprecation, a bundle of insecurities and stand-up comedy shtick characterize his work, as do self-loathing, Jewish neuroses and a queer sensibility that's difficult to define.

It's officially winter, and baby, is it ever cold outside. But gallery-wise, the year is heating up what might otherwise be a dreary season. Throw on the parka and grab the umbrella, there are places to go and things to see.