Metamorphozing the substance of earth into clearly de­fined but fragmented emblems via highly textured, elemental formal sym­bols, Herold paints and carves painting­ reliefs (assemblage and dessemblage) with self-conscious nobility. Seemingly inspired by medieval visions, he relates the mystical nature of nature to a som­ber, mat and shiny, tomblike imagery as rich in pictorial inventiveness as it is full of poetic reverie. Derived from the contemporary mannerism of “art brut,” Herold’s totemic objects are physically cut, incised and severed in such ways as to allow images from one plane to peek through to another. Miss Townsend’s rather delicate, non-ob­jectified oils utilize artifacts of land­scapism, assuming a characteristic identity through vigorous brushwork and a peculiar filtering of lustrous light which illuminates her anxious ex­panses of detailed foliage patterns and horizonless “scenes.”

––Arthur Secunda