The intensity of feeling and the power of investigation reflected in these recent paintings by Vera Klement is nothing short of astounding. The artist circumscribes chaos, evoking despair, fear, longing, and torment with such precision that she turns viewers into witnesses. Klement spent her childhood in Gdansk, and the bracing air of the Baltic still provides the ether around her images. The churning, turbulent handling of paint bespeaks her early experiences with Abstract Expressionism as a student in New York in the ’50s.

In most of the seven large paintings shown here, Klement juxtaposes her

From his studio in Madison, Wisconsin, removed by choice from the currents and vicissitudes of the art world, Dennis Nechvatal extends his idiosyncratic vision. He is both ambitious and indefatigable, churning out a multitude of huge and often aggressive paintings, sculptures, assemblages, and altered photos. Like many Midwestern artists, he knows no pictorial fear: boldness is the unrelieved note, the effort to confront and delight and astound through scale, variety, paint handling, and expressive figuration.

Titled “Brotherhood: A Concept in Images and Objects,” this exhibition highlighted two