“Several Landscapes”

Joe Hardesty, Landscape 2, 2008.

Just one Bob Ross “happy tree” separates most contemporary landscape painting from banality, but the seven artists featured in “Several Landscapes” offer fresh takes on the medium. Although Joe Hardesty’s Landscape 2 (2008) says, “This drawing is a beautifully rendered landscape,” the piece is neither a landscape nor a drawing; it’s a large sign written in pencil. In a single paragraph, it describes “three snowcapped mountains” in the distance, a sunset, “birds singing joyful songs celebrating the return of spring” and other picturesque clichés. Hardesty’s gray text fills viewers’ imaginations with vivid illustrations. As it demonstrates how ingrained our ideas about landscapes are, other works on view subvert them.

Some succeed by expanding the definition of “landscape” to include human interventions in the natural world. Kevin Cosgrove’s gloomy Truck (2007) presents the rear of a tractor-trailer on the highway, a sight we’ve contemplated for hours on our way to more interesting views. The tiny panels in Megan Euker’s undated, jewellike La Mola series focus on the towel-toting visitors to an Italian natural spring, relegating the water and trees to the background.

Claire Sherman’s intense palette and photorealistic depictions of light and shadow bring to life both cool green woods and harsh deserts. The latter category includes Crater (2007), in which the artist slathers brown oil paint so thickly onto her unframed canvas that it becomes a relief sculpture. Like the best work in this show, the unique piece revives the connection between landscapes and the sublime.