Continuing through April 9, 2017
Lisa Adams offers a series of beautifully detailed small oil paintings titled “Petrichor.” Small in size, every piece seems to expand visually the longer you study it. Each encompassing painting is formally balanced and as dreamy as an illustration for a modern-day fairy tale. In “Giphy” and “Giphy II,” floral shapes drip from perfectly formed vases; in “Dun Hemet” a yurt with mosaic-like accents perches beneath a lowering sky. There is a sweet, evocative pleasure in viewing these small paintings, which evoke a feeling that an elusive magic that informs and extends beyond the image we see. Perhaps it’s the scent of petrichor itself, that evocative olfactory experience of damp earth after a first rain ends a dry spell.
Equally refreshing is Michael Mancari’s “Motherboard,” vibrantly colored abstracts presented in visual and emotional layers. In works like “Baby Cry” and “Day Glow,” patterns and lines, graffiti-like images, a layering of stencils, paint and patterns produce rich images that are tapestry-like, woven and interlaced in the shades of sunrise and sea, redolent with longing for what might have been or might yet be.
