Stop. Look. Listen.

“I’m making everyone work harder this time,” says Tim Nies, whose current show at the Mulberry Art Studios, “Dichotomy,” combines elements of installation, collage, found art and painting.
Dichotomy binds us together and tears us apart, Nies says in his artist’s statement: “Dichotomy describes plant and cell growth, astronomical phenomenon and the mutually exclusive contradiction of thought and action.”
Paintings of organic or abstract forms incorporate discarded electrical equipment, sometimes within repurposed frames, and are linked by a diagram on one wall. Other paintings incorporate unconventional techniques such as a controlled rust staining that looks accidental, but is the result of deliberate spraying of iron objects with a mixture of water and vinegar and laying them on canvas — in one large work, this takes on something like a yin-yang form. On the other hand, a framed canvas is hung backward to display a stain that is entirely accidental but nevertheless evocative of a landscape.
In another work, a window frame contains old math flash cards, some mounted upside down so that the sums are still readable, yet wrong. Yet another flash card rests within a cabinet of found objects, containing the dire sum “9+5=Death.”
This is his second show at the Mulberry Art Studios in about a year, and he seems to have moved away from the rigorous investigations of “Worlds Within Worlds” into a slightly looser mode. With its scrawled words and educational artifacts, its rust marks and damaged wires, the works allude to primary-school education rather than quantum mechanics, the actual results of the process of time, rather than theories about time.
Incidentally, the 8-foot-by-8-foot “Worlds Within Worlds,” the title work of the earlier exhibition, is on display at the Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading as part of the “Curator’s Choice” show that runs through April 5.

In “Paper, Light and Shadow,” artist A. Paul Lambert, inspired by Dale Chihuly and other glass artists, has created forms in paper that play off translucency and opacity in a similar manner, sculptures that are sometimes lit from within. “I really wanted the shadows to speak for themselves … I really like black and white,” Lambert commented at a First Friday reception at the Mulberry Art Studios, 21 N. Mulberry St. Like Chihuly, Lambert has drawn his inspiration from natural and organic forms. The names of the pieces — Zeolite (left), Isostacy (right), Ionic Bond (lower left and right), Surface Wave, Atoll — represent geologic forms  and “anything that flows: sound waves, ocean waves, seismic waves,” Lambert said. The reception also featured an unusual snack: homemade fortune cookies containing, instead of lottery numbers, questions to ask the artist. “Ask the artist about complex shapes from simple forms,” was one. “Ask the artist why he uses paper,” was another. (Answer is here.) The show runs through March.

Tomorrow: Tim Nies

My review of Sunday’s second Chamber Music Series concert is posted here. The next concert won’t be until May 17, with two big works planned: Brahm’s Sextet in B flat Major, Op. 18 and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence Sextet in D Minor, Op. 70. Details here. So far, so good: I hope the LSO does this again next year! It’s been an outstanding series so far, with both thought-provoking and emotion-evoking programs. Sunday’s concert seemed to concern, in some way, the music of imperiled peoples: Bartok’s Hungarian, Rumanian and other Eastern European peasants, Hubay’s Gypsies, Bloch’s Hassidic Jews. And Brahms, while situated solidly in the Germanic tradition, often looked to Hungarian and Gypsy music for inspiration.

Six emerging artists in residence are the focus of the EAR Show at Millersville University’s Sykes Gallery in Breidenstein Hall.  Sophia Flood, Lindsay Carone, Erin McSorley, Stan Sulewski, Matthew Jakielski and Ku Hsin-yi will show the results of a year’s work in ceramics, print and sculpture. A reception and artist talks will take place today (Monday, March 23) from 5 to 8 p.m. The exhibit runs until April 9.

Live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera Saturday: Bellini’s La Sonnambula, with Natalie Dessay as Amina, 1 p.m., Penn Cinema. Here are some reviews: it seems Mary Zimmerman’s production received a critical reception but the singing and acting are getting more love. Besides, Dessay is being a good sport about the whole thing. (HT to About Last Night for the audio link.)

This will be a deep blue Friday in Lancaster, with the Chameleon Club’s Blues Fest, with Johnny Winter, the Nighthawks, Blue Light Special & Ragtime Willie, starting at 7, and the last installment of the Lancaster Arts Hotel Gallery’s Midwinter Bluesfest, featuring the Billy Penn Project, starting at 5. The gallery also will be opening an exhibit of digitally solarized photographs by Milt Friedly of rodeo scenes in Wyoming, his home state. If that doesn’t fill up the evening, there’s Music Friday, with performers all over town. Check here for details.

Emily Saliers, one-half of the Indigo Girls, will perform in Lancaster with her father, retired theology professor Don E. Saliers, who has written a number of books on theology and worship, at 7 tonight at the Church of the Apostles, 1850 Marietta Ave. An offering will be taken to benefit the Lancaster Theological Seminary’s Dolores P. Berry Liberation Preaching Prize. More information is available at 290-8758 or here.
It’s interesting to note that the father and daughter team co-wrote “A Song to Sing, a Life to Live,” an examination of the shared experience of music, whether it’s “Saturday night” or “Sunday morning,” and its power to heal and bond. (Source: Publishers Weekly as quoted in Amazon.com.)
The seminary is sponsoring another concert with singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer, 7 p.m. Sunday, April 19, also at the Church of the Apostles. The concert will benefit the seminary’s continuing education programs.

In “Two Views,” now through March 28 at the Isadore Gallery, Aaron Brooks and Paul Manlove, who painted landscapes together in the Susquehanna Valley in 2008, present a double vision of similar scenes. Though there are differences in technique and artistic influences, both painters share a bold, colorful approach that has resulted in a very lively show, with the paintings displayed in pairs, one by each artist, showing the same or similar landscapes in different lights. Manlove’s view of a quarry is shown at left, Brooks’ take on the same subject at right. Another pair of paintings shows a forest scene, Manlove’s slightly more abstract work, with clashing areas of color, contrasting with Brooks’ subtler approach.

If I’m reading the Millersville University calendar correctly, three exhibits are opening there today (Monday, March 16):

1. Sculptor Greg Kline, “Great Job!”, Ganser Gallery. His “Trophies” use humor, cultural and architectural references to “explore issues of identity and history.” Through April 24.

2. A Showcase of Scholarship: Scholarly works, published and unpublished works, art, music, film and more. First floor, Millersville University Library, through April. Opening reception today 3-5 p.m., with music from MU’s guitar ensemble.

3.  The EAR Show, in Sykes Gallery, Breidenstein Hall.

Kutztown University student  Sarah Racine’s large-scale charcoal and pastel drawings put the focus on huge faces and hands, images drawn from many cultures that convey the message of “unity through humanity.” Racine’s exhibit, “Imago Dei,” is on display through March 28 at the Heitmann Atelier and Gallery on the second floor of 104 W. Chestnut St.

Over at the Parlor Gallery, 320 Laurel Street, Brian Epperly is showing a selection of landscapes and still lifes in “Variations of Light.” A plein-air painter, he uses a palette knife to create his oil paintings, which he completes in about 2 hours. “It’s all about planes of color … It’s all about painting light,” he commented at the show opening March 6. The works in the show were all done over a period of about three years, from 2006 to 2009, and show scenes from southeastern Pennsylvania (“Grain Silos,” shown at left, is a scene from Williams Grove, near Mechanicsburg), upstate New York and Annapolis, Md. Earlier paintings were done with premixed colors, but in later ones he shifted to mixing his colors on the spot. The still lifes were painted on ordinary floor tiles, the faintly marbled pattern giving a sense of depth to the background.