Each of these drawings has, in its own way, the same sense of mysterious banality. A bald man is seen from the rear, an IV bag is vignetted against a brick wall, a piece of a map has too little information to be useful, an apparent label to a box of walnuts has the top third of the letters cut off. Barnes quietly but firmly directs our attention to the parts of the scene that are missing, are probably important, and are beyond what we can know.
Ken Greenleaf can be reached at ken.greenleaf@gmail.com.
Related:
Structural integrity, Summer people, Conversation piece, More 
- Structural integrity
The five artists featured in "Stratum," now on view at Whitney Art Works, are diverse in background, medium, and scale, but they comfortably crowd the gallery's two rooms with sculptures, paintings, and drawings that respond to the relationships exposed by stripping back layers and how meaning and interpretation shift when new layers are presented.
- Summer people
Ever wonder why there is so much professional-level art made and shown in Maine, a state with a total population less than that of many minor cities? One answer is that following the fame of people like Winslow Homer, creative types flocked to Maine, often to artists' colonies.
- Conversation piece
Leon Johnson explains his trans-historical-post-colonial-dinner-wait-what?!
- Weight + measure
The centerpiece, conceptually and physically, of Aaron Stephan's show at Whitney Art Works is "Flat World/Round Map," a cast-iron sphere about six feet in diameter. While not exactly the largest ( "18 Columns" covers more ground and "The Burden Crates" is taller) it creates a center of gravity around itself.
- Found, and created
While aesthetically there is little to compare between Rebecca FitzPatrick's "Thread" show and "Multiples" by Owen F. Smith, together on view at Whitney Art Works this month, both artists appropriate found materials, are impressively prolific, and identify with a post- or anti-war movement of the previous century.
- Easy on the eyes
"The Funnies" at Whitney Art Works is a sprawling show of upwards of 150 pieces by 25 artists, all of whom have been brought together by local artist — Jeff Badger.
- Accept no imitations
The nature of art requires that you see the real works. Reproductions will not do.
- Variations and themes
The technique of the artist isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when you see a work — at least not a successful one.
- Wrestlemania
Plus, Ed Ruscha and Raymond Pettibon in Worcester
- Fight the power
Art mixes it up with history and politics, peers closely at electronic surveillance, worries about its own usefulness, traipses down the fashion runway, and brings cool stuff back from China and Puerto Rico in exhibitions opening this fall.
- The needle and the damage done
Katherine Porter is known primarily as an abstract painter. But she's always made her work distinctly her own, imbuing it with symbolism and a visionary consciousness
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Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Painting, Visual Arts, Tim Clorius, More
, Painting, Visual Arts, Tim Clorius, Adriane Herman, Whitney Art Works, Melinda Barnes, Less
