Review

Bloodwood and Oak Bowl (Three Views).

George Hanson

6-9 p.m.
(Opening Reception)

Images Art Gallery
7320 W. 80th St.
Overland Park, KS
913.232.7113

Hours after Opening Reception: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
Runs through: Feb. 13.

Gallery site: http://www.imagesartgallery.org

Ordinarily, posting about an opening reception for an artist I've never met in person can be a tricky proposition.

But one of the good things about Images Art Gallery is that all of its members, not only the monthly featured artists, have work permanently on display. So George Hanson's art is not unfamiliar territory ... although he is the first woodturner to be featured in this space.

(The form is different from freehand carving, in that it involves the use of a lathe on which wood is, obviously, turned.)

Hanson's work will be featured along with Dennis Littleworth's photography, the paintings and drawings of Valda Robison, and works by participants in the gallery's fourth annual student show.

For his portion of the group exhibition, which opens tonight with a reception from 6-9 p.m., Hanson has crafted art that is functional, attractive — and intricate, with some of his creations containing more than 500  individual components. His list of hardwoods is extensive, too: It includes, but is not limited to bloodwood, oak, Cocobolo, Bubinga, hickory and Purpleheart.

He balances the familiar and the exotic, as well as light and dark, in the bloodwood and oak bowl pictured above (from multiple angles). The piece also points up a quirk of perception: While neither color predominates, the eye tends to see a light bowl with dark zigzag markings — in the same way that we perceive zebras to be white with black markings when the opposite is true.

Then again, you might see things differently ... and you can't really know what the bowl and Hanson's other works look like unless you (please pardon the pun) turn up at the show.

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