Both abstract and gestural, figurative and architectural, the works of Trinidadian Canadian painter Denyse Thomasos (1964–2012) vibrate with the punitive potential of human structures. It was fitting, then, that this retrospective of the late artist’s oeuvre opened with a photograph of Thomasos at work on Hybrid Nations, 2005, a large-scale mural whose composition is dominated by a computer rendering of a sage-green panopticon. Single-storied, unlike Jeremy Bentham’s prototype, Thomasos’s edifice has quadrants that radiate from the center with varied geometric forms—including the graphic

Ranging from the mournful to the exuberant, or from grand and tumultuous scenes of hell to the humblest and quietest of still lifes, Howard Podeswa’s canvases seem to examine all facets of existence. The artist shies away from any one signature style, and while his motives often feel elusive, he appears to be driven by a deep curiosity about—or even a loving submission to—his subjects, be they the people he counts among his nearest and dearest, or scraps of materials just lying around his work space.

At Birch Contemporary, Podeswa’s exhibition “Dépaysement / Studio” (Change of Scenery /