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MAEV: An Artist’s Reaffirmation of the Visionary Impulse Rarely are subject and medium so seamlessly merged as in the paintings on copper of the doubly-gifted Quebec-based visual artist and musician MAEV (Maev Marchini) whose compositions are infused with a singularly ethereal sense of light.      A visionary in the tradition of William Blake, MAEV abandoned oil painting for her unusual medium in the wake of a trying family crisis in the late 1980s.

Yasuyuki Ito: The Miraculous Inner Vision of a Sight-Impaired Painter In 2003, Japanese artist Yasuyuki Ito experienced what he describes as a “serious deterioration of my eyesight” due to a loss of central vision.     “Since then the process of creation has been more challenging,” he says, “but I continue to depict my interior world and my perception of the outer world, using a variety of creative techniques.

Nada Herman, Scion of an Australian Art Dynasty The granddaughter of Sali Herman, one of Australia’s most famous painters, Nada Herman grew up in an atmosphere that nurtured art and started painting in oils at age eight, sharing a studio with both her grandfather and her father, “TED,” also an accomplished and admired artist.

Protest Meets Grandeur in the Art of Kiko Sobrino The Brazilian artist Kiko Sobrino employs a number of techniques –– including acrylics, ink, serigraphy, and even computer graphics on canvas and wood ––  to creates works that move fluently between the figurative and the abstract. Yet he is adamant in his insistence that “my formation is from the classical school of arts.

Carlo Proietto: Conundrums Cloaked in a Pristine Aesthetic Carlo Proietto has written two exhaustively researched books on pyrography, rescuing the technique of burning images into wood or fabric with a heated instrument from the misperception of being “a relatively minor art form,” establishing once and for all that it is, as he puts, “comparable to any art form.”  It is in his own fine art works, however, that he drives this point home most convincingly and dynamically.

Eduard Anikonov and the Souls of Machines Like the American artist Walter Murch, active in the 1950s and 60s, Eduard Anikonov is a “painter’s painter,” in that his work has as much to do with light and shadow, color and texture, and the tactile qualities of oil paint applied to canvas as with the subjects that he depicts.

Z. Todorova’s Language of Universal Symbols It is no trick to make a simple thing complex,” the great jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus once stated. “The real accomplishment is making something complex simple.”     He could have been talking about the mixed media works of the artist known as   Z.

The Equine Photography of Carol J. Walker From artists of the French Romantic period like Gericault and Delacroix to the famous 18th century British painter of horses George Stubbs, the idealized equine figure has been such a ubiquitous part of  art history that one might easily mistake the images of the Colorado-based photographer Carol J. Walker for paintings –– especially since they are presented as Giclee prints on canvas.

Nature is Transformed in the Paintings of L. Byrne Contrary to the belief of strict formalists who would prefer to see it as a function of dispassionate aesthetic gamesmanship, abstract painting had its origins in mystery.

Felicities of Form and Touch in the Paintings of Cecilia Fernandez Q Because she began as a sculptor, the Chilean painter Cecilia Fernandez Q came first to form. Color followed in due time:  subtle and refined combinations of complementary secondary and earthy hues that define, without being subordinated to exquisitely drawn human and animal figures informed by an underlying sense of abstraction.

Nicole Alger: A Painter for the True New Age New Age” is a term with a broad application, often encompassing a variety of multicultural disciplines that offer alternatives to the spiritual barrenness of modern life. Normally, when the term is applied to art, however, we picture images of unicorns, wizards, earth goddesses, fantastic landscapes in imaginary fairy tale realms, and other lighthearted, often banal subjects related to popular notions of a generalized gift shop “spirituality.

Pat Fairhead: A Painter Who Goes with the Flow Despite the accomplishments of its great modern exponents such as John Marin and Charles Burchfield, watercolor has yet to be acknowledged as the major medium that it can be when employed for finished works on a grand scale, rather than merely for sketches and studies.

Mihai Bara’s Winning Confluence of Formal Thrust and Buoyant Vision Painting is like second nature to me,” says the Romanian-born artist Mihai Bara, who has lived and worked in the small picturesque European principality of Andorra since 1992. “It is natural to think, breathe and to absorb vibrations and use them to recreate a different world while I paint, according to my point of view, my sensibility, my desires, my doubts...

Aelita Andre: A Young Artist Begins There are situations which not only can but should give any self-respecting critic pause. One of them is a phenomenon such as Aelita Andre, a four-year-old girl of Russian heritage who lives with her parents in Melbourne, Australia, and is presently being celebrated in major media –– including by Germaine Greer in The Guardian and on 60 Minutes –– as “the youngest professional painter in the world.

Social Commentary Meets Beauty in the Art of Anti Liu Perhaps the best introduction to the art of Anti Liu, a Taiwanese sculptor now living in Long Island, is his terracotta figure “ Terracotta Marilyn Monroe.” We all know the pose: It’s based on that iconic picture of the blond screen goddess standing on a subway grate with her skirt billowing up around her thighs.

Charting Painter Paul M. Cote’s Lightning Ascent Although he has only been painting for a relatively short period of time, Paul M. Cote, who signs his work “Cody,” has quickly established himself as something of an up-and-coming artistic enfant terrible, given his untrammeled ambition and the large scale and rugged aggressiveness of his Neo-Abstract Expressionist canvases.

Out of Shadow: The Dramatic Digital Photography of Denis Palbiani The use of chiaroscuro, starkly contrasting light and shadow in painting, was perfected by  Caravaggio, the most powerful and original Italian artist of the 17th century. He had an enormous influence on other painters who came to be called “Caravaggesque,” including the French artist Georges de La Tour, known for his nocturnal scenes with candles used as the source of light.

Lydia van den Berg’s Paintings Filter Innocent Wonder Through Sophisticated Vision Although the Bulgarian-born artist Lydia van den Berg, who now lives and works somewhere in the vicinity of Zurich, Switzerland, classifies her painting style as “Magical Poetic Realism,” it would not be inaccurate to add yet another descriptive word to that designation: “Visionary.

Kelly Hunt Probes the Secret Life of the Flower A rose is a rose is a rose,” wrote Gertrude Stein, but one feels almost certain that  Kelly Hunt would disagree. For in her large digital photographs of floral forms on canvas, Hunt makes clear that a rose –– and indeed any other species of flower –– can be ever so much more.

A Powerful Female Spirit Haunts the Art of Susannah Virginia Griffin One of the Texas artist Susannah Virginia Griffin’s most affecting paintings is the acrylic on canvas entitled “All that Glitters.” In a vigorous flurry of gestural strokes, it depicts a faceless doll with long yellow hair, its bent, bow legs hardly suggesting those of a ballerina, even as they issue from a tattered cerulean blue tutu ruffled like the feathers of a dying swan.

Did Dontzoff Paints the Human Image in the Raw Born in Paris of Russian, Jewish, and Gypsy origins, Did Dontzoff is a painter with his own unique vernacular, which can only be described as a sophisticated variant on Dubuffet’s “art brut,” seasoned by the streets in much the same manner as the poetry of Jacques Prévert and the songs of Charles Azvenour.

Clive Rowe: Possible Prophet of a “Terrible Beauty” Even an artist engaged with state-of-the-art new media must be beholden to a tradition, in order to sustain a sophisticated and consciously avant garde aesthetic practice. Or so Clive Rowe, a lifelong photographer presently experimenting with manipulating his own images by means of computer technology, seems to imply, in a lengthy artist statement that sheds light on his recent work.

Maria José Royuela: The Art of Reflection ”Patience” is a word one rarely hears in the hectic, ambitious art world of today, where everyone appears to be in a hurry to succeed, and where the work is often hurried in execution, serving as a mere accessory to that quest for success. For this reason it is refreshing to hear the Spanish painter Maria José Royuela say, “My work is the fruit of patience.

Clara Gràcia: The Emotive Power of Nature It has been noted elsewhere that while the Catalan artist Clara Gràcia often works on large canvases, her style is more lyrical than aggressive and does not tend to intimidate the viewer, as big paintings sometimes can. Indeed, standing before one of her paintings, the viewer is enveloped in effusions of color and light that have the warming effect of Mediterranean sunlight.

Chantal Westby’s Paintings Project an Epic Grandeur The Italian phrase 'di sotto in su', which means “looking up from below,” is a device for creating spatial allusions via severe foreshortening, and is often seen in the ceiling frescos of Andrea Mantegna and other Renaissance masters but is rarely encountered in the work of contemporary artists. Chantal Westby, a French painter who moved to the United States in the 1980s, is one of the rare exceptions.

Lyricism and Freedom in the Art of Dominique Boutaud Although Dominique Boutaud, who was born in  Nice, France, became an American citizen in 2008, she remains a French painter in the very best sense of the term. Which is to say: her work has a sense of finesse and a love of beauty that harks back to the glory days of the School of Paris. And while she is primarily an abstract painter who says “The U.S.

The Neo-Pointillism of Santina “Semadar” Panetta At a heretofore little explored juncture where pointillism meets optical art and color field painting are the oils of Santina “Semadar” Panetta, an artist who was exposed to the classical arts in both her native Italy and Greece before migrating to Montreal, and who has staked out her own unique territory. Ostensibly, Panetta’s paintings are landscapes.

Wayne Wilmoth: Space Creates the Place Photography has turned the corner in recent decades, taking its rightful place beside painting as a major art form and fetching big prices in galleries and auction houses. Wayne Wilmoth, a Texan presently living and working in Naples, Florida, and a professional  photographer for two decades, is in the innovative vanguard of the art for his “3-D landscapes.

Chinese Beauty Inspires Artist Zhang Xiuzhu The renowned Chinese painter Zhang Xiuzhu is an artist totally enamored of the Asian feminine mystique in the series that he calls “As Time Goes By –– Theatrical Life.” In the West, the phrase “As Time Goes By”  immediately evokes the haunting lyrics and melody that accompanied the doomed romance of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergmann in the classic film “Casablanca.

Discovering the Gritty Newcomer Michelle Louise The story of the painter Michelle Louise is one of triumph over adversity. Three years ago, after leaving an abusive marriage, Louise found herself a single mother raising three children with no job, no bank account, and no car –– almost a necessity in a town like Sanford, Maine, where her family has lived for three generations.

The Lyrical Linear Universe of Fred Mou Line is the essence of form and a delineator of character, according to artists in Asian countries where calligraphy is regarded as an art form on a par with painting, and where its greatest exponents generally surpass the linear mastery of our best Western artists.

Tamar Rosen: Heir to a Noble Painterly Tradition There are certain painters whose work appears to be as much about honoring the tradition of painting itself as about the subjects that their paintings depict. Upon such artist we sometimes bestow the honorific of “painter’s painter,” and that designation seems entirely appropriate for Tamar Rosen, an artist from Tel Aviv, widely exhibited in both Israel and the U.S., whose solo show will be featured at Agora Gallery in Chelsea this October.

The Tactile/Coloristic Symphonics of Yuta Strega Although she received her early art education at the College of Fine arts in Frankfurt, Germany, Yuta Strega lives in France and works in a studio that, in the poetic description of one writer “opens onto a long downward sloping garden where vegetal shapes and colors mingle, then stretches into an infinite rolling landscape.

Mexican Painter Marcela Cadena’s Vibrant Vision From the evidence of the work to be seen in her upcoming exhibition at Agora Gallery in Chelsea, Marcela Cadena, who has already exhibited extensively and who was also featured at Art Shanghai in China earlier this year, is among the best and brightest of the present generation of young Mexican artists.

Ivanrod: Beyond Minimalism Born in Bogota, Columbia, Ivan Rodriguez Saboya, who is known as a  painter by the mononym of Ivanrod, demonstrates auspiciously John Powson’s excellent definition of minimalism: “the perfection that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction.

The Hybrid Visions of Surrealist Anis Dargaa Like his fellow countryman René Magritte, the doubly gifted painter and sculptor Anis Dargaa, born in Liège, Belgium, in 1972, is a Surrealist fascinated with intriguing incongruities.

Gustavo Rasso’s Painterly Approach to the Digital Print The more one sees of digital art the clearer it becomes that some of its most impressive practitioners are those who were trained in drawing and painting before they took up the new medium.

Steven Mark Glatt and the Majesty of Melancholy
My work comes from a place that few people get to visit,” says Steven Mark Glatt, whose paintings will be on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from January 8 through 29, 2010, with a reception on Thursday, January 14, from 6 to 8 PM.

Lyrical Vivacity in the Paintings of Alyssa Traub
The confluence of personal vision and state of the art technology amounts to a powerful creative synthesis in “Altered States of Reality: an Exhibition of Analog and Digital Fine Art Photography,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from October 27 through November 17. (Reception: Thursday October 29, 6 to 8 PM.)

Photography: Angles of Vision, Versions of Reality
The confluence of personal vision and state of the art technology amounts to a powerful creative synthesis in “Altered States of Reality: an Exhibition of Analog and Digital Fine Art Photography,” at Agora Gallery, from October 27 through November 17 .

Contemporary Directions in Latin American Art
If the art of Latin America has one overriding characteristic it is an imaginative scope that comes across in the aptly named group show “Masters of the Imagination: The Latin American Fine Art Exhibition,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from September 8 through 29. (Reception: Thursday, September 10, from 6 to 8 PM.)

Daniel Sewell at Agora: Reconfiguring Cubism
Figurative, cubist, improvised, process-oriented” is how Daniel Sewell, an American artist presently living in Shanghai, China, sums up his compositions in spray paint. However, an underlying conceptual complexity and allusive resonance that defies such succinct description comes across in the works by Sewell on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from September 8 through 29. (Reception: Thursday, September 10, from 6 to 8 PM.)

Cary Gang’s Sumptuous Synthesis of Color and Gesture
Indeed, there is no discernible hierarchy to the sources of her chromatic enthrallment in the paintings by Cary Gang on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from September 8 through 29. (Reception Thursday, September 10, from 6 to 8 PM.)

The Paintings of Martina O’Brien Reconfigure the Irish Landscape from Scratch"
Among the contemporary Irish artists encountered recently, one of the most impressive, as well as one of the most quintessentially Irish in her subject matter, is Martina O’Brien, whose work can be seen at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from June 2 through 23. (Reception: Thursday, June 4, from 6 to 8 PM.)

Gerard Stricher’s Striking Abstract Synthesis
Gerard Stricher’s chromatic luminosity, combined with a sense of spontaneity that results in an exhilarating gestural vivacity, imparts to his paintings a singular aesthetic resonance, uniting in a striking synthesis aspects of abstract painting that were once thought to be irreconcilable. His paintings are on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from from June 27 through July 17. (Reception: Thursday, July 2, from 6 to 8 PM.)

“Altered States” of Contemporary Photography in Chelsea
From the puritanical stance of those photographic pioneers, we have evolved to the more enlightened belief that art should reflect its times, both in its refusal to adhere to outdated aesthetic formulae and its embrace of whatever state of the art wizardry suits its purposes. Thus the marriage of subjective vision and technology is the promising premise of the multifaceted exhibition “Altered States of Reality,” to be seen at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from April 14 through May 5. (Reception: Thursday, April 16, from 6 to 8 pm.)

Pat Kagan: A Power that Defies Stereotypes
Those colors inform Kagan’s lyrical semiabstract landscapes in watercolor, with their ethereal, almost achingly nostalgic sense of transcendence. But Kagan asserts that her real breakthrough occurred in the bold gestural abstractions in her show, “Quintessential Color” on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from March 21 through April 10 (reception Thursday, March 26, from 6 to 8pm).

A Diverse Survey of New Japanese Painting
We’ve been yearning for an exhibition of contemporary Japanese art that is not exclusively limited to Hello Kitty clones, and here it is: “Matrix of the Mind,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street from February 24 through March 17 (with a reception on Thursday, March 5, from 6 to 8pm), proves that some artists from the Land of the Rising Sun are thinking about a lot more than cute cartoon characters.

Anna Ravliuc Lends Redeeming Beauty to Harsh Truths
Inspired by pagan traditions and prehistoric legends, Anna Ravliuc, an artist born in the Ukraine, now living in Romania, emerges as a contemporary heir to Gustave Moreau in the paintings viewed at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from February 24 through March 17. (Reception: Thursday, March 5, 6 to 8pm.)

Eric Robin: Conjuring the Face of Suffering and Compassion
As a police officer for the city of Brussels, the Belgian painter Eric Robin came to see himself as a “witness of humanity,” and that, he says, has been one of his abiding inspirations. Certainlya sense of humanity in the raw is everywhere evident in the paintings Robin will be exhibiting at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from January 6 through 27, 2009. (Reception January 8, from 6 to 8pm.)

Danish Painter Per Hillo Delineates Our Interconnectedness
Few contemporary paintings evoke the underlying energies of all things as dynamically as those of Per Hillo, an artist from Denmark, on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street,from January 6 to 27, 2009. (Reception Thursday, January 8, 6 to 8 pm.)

Transcending Boundaries is Second Nature for the Painter NAT
In NAT’s exhibition at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from January 6 through 27, with a reception on January 8, from 6 to 8pm, the two supposedly opposing poles of expression are skillfully united in works such as “Olympe.”

Maria Pia Taverna’s Evocative Realm of Shadows
While many take sides today regarding traditional versus newer media, vehemently espousing the superior aesthetic merits or contemporary relevance of one or the other, some of the most interesting artists are those who evolve a personal synthesis of both. One of the most intriguing discoveries in this regard is Maria Pia Taverna, a native of Italy, currently living and working in Turin, whose work will be on view in the exhibition “The Odyssey Within,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from December 12 through January 2, 2009. (Reception: Thursday December 18, 2008, 6 to 8pm.)

Science and Art Intermarry in the Paintings of Marika Berlind
Although those of limited vision may think of science as a cut and dry subject, every true scientist is involved in a search for the unknown. Thus the Greek-born San Francisco-based painter Marika Berlind, who combines her dual loves Astronomy / Mathematics and Art in her work, can confidently state, “I do not aspire for my art to be a didactic tool to explain science. Rather, I wish to provide an alternative means by which to explore science. The results of Berlind’s “research” can be seen at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from December 12 through January 2, 2009. (Reception: Thursday, December 18, 6 to 8pm.)

Luigi Galligani : Humanizing Myths, Restoring Our Sense of Wonder
Working primarily in bronze and terra cotta, the Italian sculptor Luigi Galligani reinterprets ancient Mediterranean myths in striking contemporary terms, at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from December 12 through January 2, 2009. (Reception: Thursday, December 18, from 6 - 8pm.)

Lee Porter: Australia's Female Answer to "The Male Gaze"
the acrylic paintings that Porter is exhibiting at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street October 24 through November 13 (reception Thursday, November 6, 6 to 8pm) are expeditions into a territory as relatively unexplored (at least by female artists) as the Outback itself, and for that reason alone may possess historical importance. For certain, they possess wit and are skillfully rendered.

Charting the Impossible: The Intrepid Mission of Slobodan Miljevic
Slobodan Miljevic is a consummately sophisticated painter, conversant with a broad range of techniques, which he combines in a manner that gives his compositions a multidimensional quality. Mediums are mixed liberally in order to lend his paintings a plethora of textural and coloristic contrasts. Often, he combines oils, acrylics, sand, and even digital prints to striking effect.

An Informative Survey of New Canadian Painting Comes to Chelsea
We live in such relatively close proximity to our "neighbor to the north," as it is often called; yet far too many of us remain unaware of the vital contemporary art scene that it harbors. For this reason, and simply for the overall excellence of the work on view, "Beyond Borders: an Exhibition of Fine Art from Canada" is well worth a visit to Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, where it will be on view from October 1 through 21 (Reception: October 2, 6 to 8pm).

Egalitarian Gallantry Ennobles the Art of Ricardo Lowenberg
Women are objectified, and even demeaned, by male artists in so many ways in so much contemporary art that one is hardly prepared for the mellow romanticism and aesthetic gallantry that distinguishes the paintings of the Mexican artist Ricardo Lowenberg, on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, in Chelsea, from September 9 through 30 (Reception September 11, 6 to 8 pm).

Aranka Israni's Ever-Evolving Quest for Homeostasis
An Indian raised as a Muslim in Dubai, Aranka Israni brings a strong sense of her cultural heritage to bear in her paintings on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from September 9 through 30 (Reception: Thursday, September 11, 6 to 8pm). The absolute clarity and grace of these compositions reveals a maturity of vision that belies the artist's relative youth.

Fumio Noma: Listening to the Whisperings of Nature
Looking at the work of Fumio Noma, on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from September 9 through 30 (reception September 11, 6 to 8 pm), one is reminded of the great Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki, who fell under the influence of Western writers such as Baudelaire, Poe, and Wilde, yet remained faithful to his national heritage and wrote the ultimate essay on the Japanese sense of beauty, "In Praise of Shadows."

Neil Masterman: A Maestro of Many Styles from the UK
Two of Masterman's favorite quotes about painting, included in an address book of his paintings that is a popular seller in England, are "Painting is a journey into the unknown" and "Painting is how you feel at the time." Both seem to apply to his own work, which is bright and upbeat in a manner akin to Hockney and Peter Blake, but also shares a sense of playfulness with that other British free spirit Colin Self.

Michael Gemmell: A Painter of the Bogs and the Irish Earth
Encountering the work of the Irish artist Michael Gemmell, one is reminded of a poem by his famous fellow countryman Seamus Heaney called "Exposure" that begins, "It is December in Wicklow: / Alders dripping, birches / Inheriting the last light, / the ash tree cold to look at." For Gemmell lives and works in Wicklow and his paintings look at the land with a similarly bleak and unforgiving beauty, judging from the ones on view at Agora Gallery

Martina O'Brien Melds Elements of Landscape and Abstraction
Although she is inspired by the example of Mondrian to regard her compositions as geometric constructs, the painterly process of the Irish artist Martina O'Brien quickly dissolves overt geometry in atmospherics akin to those of Turner and Constable, in her canvases on view at Agora Gallery.

Nina Ozbey: Postmodern Abstraction Informed By a Sense of the Past
The raw, romantic energy inherent in her muscular strokes, suggesting vestiges of nature and human anatomy, hinting at a simultaneously reverent and rambunctious relationship with the great art of the past, makes Nina Ozbey seem a legitimate heir to the revolutionary movement that first put American painting on the map. Ozbey will exhibit at Agora Gallery 530 West 25th Street, from July 22 through August 12. (Reception: Thursday, July 24, 6 to 8pm.)

Katrin Alvarez: Confronting and Banishing the Demons Within
Like Marlene Dumas, an older artist with whom she shares certain qualities in common, the German painter Katrin Alvarez depicts aspects of human and societal relationships through figures that often take on a doll-like quality,

Tradition and Originality in the Art of George J.D. Bruce
What makes an artist original, if not striving after new forms of expression? Those who truly know would argue that it is actually the artist's ability to imbue even the most traditional subjects and genres with the stamp of an individual sensibility. The paintings of George J.D. Bruce are a fine case in point.

New Art from Australia and New Zealand in Chelsea
Australian art critic and inveterate curmudgeon Robert Hughes once stated somewhat patronizingly that Australian art and by implication, that of New Zealand as well was “purely a product of isolation.” But that opinion no longer appears to hold true, given the level of high purpose and sophistication on view in “Out From Down Under & Beyond: The Australian & New Zealand Art Exhibition,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from May 10 through 30 (Reception Thursday, May 15, 6 to 8 PM).

Inna Moshkovich: Nature in the Abstract
Just how successful Moshkovich is at translating the particulars of landscape into purely painterly terms can be seen in the exhibition “Out From Down Under & Beyond” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from May 10 to 30 (Reception: May 15 from 6 to 8 PM). In both her acrylic paintings and innovative wool collages, Moshkovich captures a sense of light and movement that brings her compositions alive in a unique manner.

Universal Connections in the Art of Anicée
Although Anicée also asserts that she strives to achieve “universality” in her art, as far as one knows, she has special interest in the art of China and Japan , having more than enough in her own background to inspire her. Yet a kinship with Asian art manifests nonetheless, not only stylistically but in Anicée's approach to nature, judging from the work on view in the exhibition “Abstract Concepts,” on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from May 10 to 30, with a reception on May 15 from 6 to 8 PM.

New Directions in Photography Seen in Chelsea
That no other art form has progressed as rapidly as photography in the past half century should come as no surprise to viewers of “Tripping the Light Fantastic" The Fine Art Photography Exhibition,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from April 18 through May 8. (Reception: Thursday, April 24, 2008, from 6 to 8 PM.)

Exploring the Ongoing Evolution of Digital Art
Practically everyone fools around with computers these days, but only the highly talented sidestep facile special effects to create genuine works of art, such as those featured in “Pixel Perfect: The Digital Fine Art Exhibition,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from April 18 through May 8 (Reception: April 24, from 6 to 8 PM).

The Paintings of Javier Iturbe Unite Two Diverse Traditions
One of the most interesting things about the Spanish artist Javier Iturbe, whose oils on canvas and panel can be seen in “Persistence of Form,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from March 25 through April 15 (Reception March 27, 6 to 8 PM), is the synthesis he has created between Cubism and Surrealism.

Discovering the Emotional Expressionism of Efrain Cruz
Born in Veracruz Mexico , now living and working in Valdosta , Georgia , Efrain Cruz is a “natural,” judging from the work on view in “The Allegory of Form,” at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street from February 5 through 26. (Reception: Thursday, February 7, from 6 to 8PM.)

Life-Affirming Symbolism in the Art of Patrice Goubeau
A fantastic vision is heightened by the liberal use of chiaroscuro to lend atmospheric drama to the acrylic paintings of Patrice Goubeau, a winner of the coveted Grand Prize award from the Salon des Artistes Francais, at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street , from  February 5 through 26. (Reception: Thursday February 7, 6 to 8 PM.)

Contemporary Art Informed by the Legacy of Greece and Italy
It is a daunting task to review an exhibition as sweeping in scope as "The Odyssey Within: An Exhibition of Fine Art From Italy and Greece," So overwhelming is its bounty of stylistic diversity that most one can do is try to provide the reader with an overview of the various tendencies flourishing in those two Mediterranean countries both with richly documented artistic legacies dating from antiquity to the present and recommend that he or she make a point of visiting the gallery.

Markus Maria Saufhaus: A Gentler Approach to Expressionism
If every artist can be said to have had a formative experience which spurred the creative urge, for the German painter Markus Maria Saufhaus, it was seeing a photograph as a child of "The Tower of the Blue Horses," a painting by Franz Marc, a leading member of the Blaue Reiter group

Materiality and Meaning in the Art of Monica Marioni
Born in Italy in 1972, Monica Marioni seems to synthesize some of the most dynamic developments in modern Italian art to forge her own unique postmodern style in an exhibition on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from December 14, 2007 to January 3, 2008. (Reception Thursday, December 20, from 6 to 8 PM.)

A Global Photographic Survey Comes to Chelsea
International trends in contemporary art photography are featured in "Tripping the Light Fantastic," at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from November 20 through December 11. (Reception Thursday, November 29, 6 to 8 PM.)

Katrina Read Extends Australia's Legacy of Nature Painting
Katrina Read has stated that she wishes her work to "capture a sense of calm and peace" and to achieve "a form of connectedness through each painting with the viewer," and she succeeds splendidly in this series

Jacqueline Rosenberg's Aesthetic Mutations of Beauty and Power
Rosenberg is well aware of being at odds with traditional sexual politics when she asserts that the women in her pictures are "strong, emancipated and sexy," adding that showing sensuality "is a powerful means to express emancipation, as opposed to the classical feminist that somehow denies femininity."

Carol Reeves: Still Life as Safe Haven
Matisse once said that he wanted his paintings to be "like a comfortable armchair for the viewer" and this seems a statement with which Carol Reeves might readily agree, judging from the amiable appeal of the paintings she is showing at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from November 20th through December 11. (Reception Thursday, November 29, 6 to 8 PM.)

James Kandt's "Abstract Realism": Best of Two Worlds
The personal synthesis that he has come to refer to as "abstract realism" also harks back, in spirit if not in style, to earlier artists like Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O'Keeffe, pioneering modernists who never abandoned their roots in nature.

Evoking Spirit: The Intuitive Transformations of Allan Wash
Certain timeless motifs that occur again and again in native cultures worldwide inform the art of Allan Wash, whose compelling acrylic paintings can be seen at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from October 26 through November 15.

Denudation and Redemption in the Digital Art of Keith Kovach
The distinguished art historian Kenneth Clark once made a fine distinction between the nude and the naked. "The word nude.'" Clark pointed out, "carries, in educated usage no uncomfortable undertone." However, "to be naked is to be deprived of our clothes, and the word implies some of the embarrassment most of us feel in that condition."