R oaring, textures erupt upon Helmut Bischof’s cleanly cut, expressionistic shapes, and the compositions he unfurls from their combined aesthetic masses ponder grand, cosmic notions of human purpose. Bishcof’s wax painting techniques illuminate soft, ethereal reflections that imbue his colors with relaxed weight and fragile essences amid sources of darkness and abstract malevolence in various forms. The etched, sometimes iridescent patterns he is able to wield as a result coat his surfaces and subjects with a shimmering refractive property attuning them to their grand ominous and archaic contexts. Bischof focuses on levels of human consciousness ranging from personal epiphany to lasting landscape impact, inventive construction and even expanded consciousness. By evoking primitive forms and cave­like backgrounds, he approaches humanist issues with the awe and spectacle of religious fervor. Bischof’s booming collisions of bright, luminous elements with the silent, gaping blackness of space produce the crux of his work’s contemplation between the rich possibility of accomplishment and understanding and bleak consequences of oblivion. These juxtapositions explore the role of religious experience as it informs human relationships.

A s a child, Romanian artist Sain-Morar enjoyed reading books. “They became my best friends and marked my imagination,” she recalls, “allowing me to escape from the gray reality of the Communist world.” A quick examination at her paintings reveals the heights to which she has flown in her quest to leave that solitude and grayness behind, as even the dimmest and most gently applied hues on her canvases are undeniable in their vibrancy—never mind her dominant tones, which are deep and rich, leaving portions of the surface awash in a single, pure color.