Contemporary Paintings

Cold wax, dragged across cradle board, leaves a surface like weathered stone. Contemporary paintings here include oil, acrylic and cold wax works on canvas, panel and board by Chicago painters and other American and European artists. James Edward Scherbarth (1949-2021) built layered abstractions with titles like Blanket Bog and Ancient Lands VI. Mark Westervelt’s small works on panel run from Dazed to Kontiki to Figure on Stool. Brian Sindler paints cloud studies, tree lines at sunset and Steel Bridge 2.

Sterling Strauser, the Pennsylvania painter, appears with a Golden Horse and a pair of nudes from 1974, and Michael Banks with Pale Face 2. Italian oils from the 1950s and a German nude dated 1989 hold down the older end. Hang a Scherbarth over a long console where the light rakes across the wax, or group the small panels up a stairwell. Abstract painting photographs badly and lives well.