Waterworks
Opening Friday: Hints of life hover in the nearly abstract images in Minneapolis-based artist Drew Peterson's colorful new show. Adept in a variety of media, Peterson merges painting and printmaking here. He gets a subtle watercolor effect by applying up to 10 layers of color to a screen and then running it through a press to produce a single image called a "monoprint." Composed with streaks, lines, swirls, blobs or what appear to be chips of color, his images are resolutely abstract. Yet they often suggest an event, a place, a time. In "The Evaporating Crowd," seen here, flecks of color suggest a mass of people in motion under a dome of fluttering flags. Other prints have maplike configurations, or hint at abstracted blossoms, gardens, landscapes, runways or night vistas. Always they remain elusive, though, shimmering just on the edge of recognition. (Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Fri. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sun., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Thu. through Feb. 8. Free. Burnet Gallery, Le Méridien Chambers hotel, 901 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls. www.lemeridienchambers.com/art)
