Columbia Artists’ Gallery presents all-member holiday show

The Artists' Gallery makes the most of its compact space in a downtown Columbia office building. And its all-member holiday show and sale covers seemingly every available surface with art in various media.

As you would expect from a group exhibit that arrived with the onset of winter weather, this show has its share of reminders of the season. They range from directly representational depictions of winter to other, less direct references.

As part of the latter group, Winnie Coggins' clay vessel "Winter Winds" has white bands worked into its bumpy surface. The effect is of a strong wind raking a brown landscape.

Stylistically situated midway between realism and abstraction, Jing-Jy Chen's watercolor-and-ink "Winter" incorporates direct references to a tree-covered landscape, but its melding of black, gray and white tones also has a semi-abstract quality.

Straightforward realism can be found in Barbara Steinacker's pastel "Baby, It's Cold Outside." The artist sets this scene inside a presumably warm room, where the viewer first contemplates a candle placed just inside the window and then looks outside to gaze upon a snowy yard.

Setting up his camera outside on a cold day, photographer Carl Segal's "Bactrian Camels in the Snow" has two of those furry beasts looking very comfortable as they stand in a snowy landscape.

Whatever the season, many of the artists in this exhibit like to set their scenes out in nature.

Deborah Maklowski's colored-pencil drawing "Stone Barn" astutely brings out architectural detail in the subject's stone walls. The artist's drawing "Water's Edge" similarly makes sharp distinctions between rocks along the shore and a very blue body of water. Maklowski switches media for her pastel "Red Barn at Massey," with the softer attributes of pastel making for a visually softer image of a red barn set in a yellow field.

Some of these artists are willing to travel quite a distance for their natural subject matter.

Jerry Weinstein's photograph "Boat in the Harbor Iceland" bears a title that might have you reaching for yet another layer of clothing, but this appears to be a warm-weather scene. The boat in question is a Viking-style vessel whose traditional design is in contrast to the modern-looking boats docked behind it. You get the sense that all of these boats are intended for weekend pleasure cruises.

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Columbia Artists' Gallery presents all-member holiday show