Bombs Bursting

Artist Kara Maria's paintings are filled with explosions of color, laid down in bold brushstrokes, blocks, swirls, and repeating patterns. The competing hues overwhelm the canvases, and they scream sex, bombs, guns, and sometimes birds. They do so because within the color fields are small, clip-art-like images of sex, bombs, guns, and sometimes birds. Also butterflies, ballet dancers, war planes, and naked people — quite a lot of naked people. Her work explores sexual imagery and the military, nakedness from Western and Muslim cultures, and, above all else, power. In one piece she even drops the naked pyramid from the Abu Ghraib torture scandal into a Van Gogh-like meadow, the words "Do you think of me as often as I think of you?" printed in neat cursive over it, as if it's an inspirational poster.

Maria's exhibit of new work, "Dystopia," runs concurrently with "The Pitch of Dissent," a new exhibit by Packard Jennings.
Jan. 19-March 1, 2008