Art That’s Strange And Strangely Beautiful

Lakeville Art Night on Memorial Day weekend used to be a big deal: Streams of people meandered from one gallery to the next looking at new works, visiting with friends and enjoying wine and cheese. But then Morgan Lehman Gallery closed its doors, and Art Night went the way of the dodo. Or almost. This year both Argazzi Art and The White Gallery/Lakeville have scheduled opening receptions, one commencing as the other winds up, on May 28. You’ll have to time your visits carefully to enjoy even a semblance of the former festive ambiance. At Argazzi, Judith Singelis is showing five works by Chicago artist Carrie Pearce, new to the gallery and quite different from the abstract, reductive work usually featured. Pearce is a painter of strange and strangely beautiful, haunting portraits — all of children in this show. Working from old photographs, she creates the paintings in a faux Renaissance style: The image is painted in black and white, then many layers of color are glazed over the work before a final coat of varnish is applied. The subjects are frozen in a kind of shimmering, elegant timelessness. But these are not your usual cute children. They are still, haunted, strange, maybe evil. Their eyes stare at you both seeing and unseeing, rather like the glass eyes that Pearce collects for a hobby. You just know that these children lived in another time, that they are dead, yet they convey emotions that are real and perhaps dangerous. These are not children you’d want to babysit. Also worth seeing is an Eric Aho from 2007, new to the gallery and among the last of that rapidly rising artist’s pastoral scenes. This piece, “Embankment,” is a semi-abstract winter scene of heavy swirls of paint so thick that the picture seems almost three-dimensional. You can feel the cold in your bones. It’s a wonderful work and probably the last Aho Argazzi will get. He is represented, now, by DC Moore Gallery in New York City. At the White, “Art of the Print” presents three women who depict nature in significantly different ways. Frances Ashforth’s color block work emphasizes the horizon in relation to land, sky and water. Bold, horizontal bands of color define the tension she finds between the natural landscapes. They are bold and full of barely contained energy. Sally Frank’s work is all about the vertical: Trees stand tall; branches and leaves create patterns of light and shade. These are quiet, often stark pieces. Nancy McTague-Stock’s work, on the other hand, is somewhat abstract, patterned, gently colored. Nature is caught in fragments rather than wholes, and she tries to convey movement. Argazzi Art will host an informal reception on Saturday, May 28, from 2 to 5 p.m. The White Gallery’s opening artists’ reception is scheduled for the same day, but from 5 to 7 p.m. Of course both galleries are open to all at 11 a.m. that day. Argazzi Art is at 22 Millerton Road, Route 44, in Lakeville. For information: 860 435-8222 or go to www.argazzi art.com. The White Gallery is at 342 Main St., Lakeville. For information: 860 435-1029 or go to www.thewhitegalleryart.com.