Cara Despain and Mary Toscano met while attending the same lithography class at the University of Utah's art department. Five years later, they are paired up for their first joint exhibition.

If that sounds like a long gestation, go easy on them. In the art world, group exhibitions like a rash can seem to break out all over, while joint exhibitions are perhaps even more contagious. Collaborative exhibitions that communicate a true sense of symmetry and harmony, meanwhile, are like a rare promise kept. Despain and Toscano's "Into the White" promises all that.

The exhibit pairs Despain's drawings and sculpted homage to the biological evolution of the horse with Toscano's drawings and accompanying letter-press birds.

Drawn from the title of a song by the Pixies, "Into the White" speaks to Despain and Toscano's chosen style of spare, open lines in drawing that accentuate white space. It also captures the exhibition's open, expansive ethos of embracing the entire exhibition space and movements that trail off into a kind of nothingness.

The goal is to engage the entire exhibition space and arrive at a total effect, but one that can also be dissembled into individual pieces.

"The title really has more to do with the whole canon of white gallery walls," Despain said.

"We want the walls to feel the same as the pieces," Toscano added. "We want [the walls and artworks] to play together, and play with the notion of dimension."

Spontaneous, fun and open to process is how Despain and Toscano, both 27, like to create. Rather than circle around a fixed idea until they hit some predetermined target, the artists strive for a creative spirit that's as freewheeling and full of banter as their five-year friendship.

For example, a week before the opening, there are still two long, thick strands of cut and bundled paper they've yet to decide what to do with. "I feel like we've never worked separately, even though we have to do our drawing apart," Toscano said. "If we draw together, we usually end up listening to podcasts and cracking jokes about the ball pit at children's pizza parlors."

To illustrate their belief that process itself is an art, they've posted several scenes of their working relationship online at www.hankiefrankie.wordpress.com. Working under the joint banner of Random Tandem, much like the name of a rock band, each posting is punctuated by the video editing and music score of local musician Andrew Shaw. Each segment captures the young women at work -- drawing, cutting or working a paper shredder -- or caught in the slipstream of their inside punch lines.

"They're both very dynamic artists with unique styles that complement each other well," said Shilo Jackson, owner of Kayo Gallery. "It's nice to get to be a fly on the wall to watch the creation of this show."