By KEVIN NANCE
Contributing Writer

New Editions Gallery

Many visual artists — perhaps most — are prone to falling into ruts. You see it all the time, especially when artists have found a groove, along with a modicum of commercial success, early in their careers. If they win praise, attention and/or money from doing a particular sort of thing, they tend to do it over and over, with limited or endless variations, for years or decades, sometimes for an entire career. Picasso, whose work evolved and unfolded in distinct phases throughout his lifetime, is more the exception than the rule, as is Louise Bourgeois, who worked in multiple mediums and never developed a signature style. Most of the rest fall into ruts.

Not Tresa Thompson O’Connor, whose fine exhibition of new paintings at New Editions Gallery, “Leaning Liminal,” is that rare thing: a show by a veteran artist who, far from calcifying into familiar patterns, has branched out in new and fruitful directions. Compared to the small-scale pieces she was known for as recently as three years ago, O’Connor’s new work is significantly larger, richer, deeper, bolder, more representational, more ambitious, more complex and more technically detailed and accomplished. The most important change is that where her mostly abstract paintings once referred only obliquely and glancingly to the landscapes that may have inspired them, O’Connor’s new work, abstract and imaginary as much of it still is, seems anchored in the real world: forests, rivers, lakes, meadows, flowers, foliage, mountains, horizons, reflections, vistas of all kinds. And not just anchored in nature — rolling in it, reveling in it. To gaze at any of the blooming, deliciously dappled spaces in these paintings is to experience a powerful overflow of feelings of the kind that William Wordsworth described after strolling in the Lake District: a swooning sense of union with the world, and a certain suspension of time. 

O’Connor now appears to be making art not just for herself but with an audience in mind — one that, by the way, is capable of buying these paintings, several of which have already fetched prices of $6,000 and more, on the high end for Lexington artists. This is gleaming, highly covetable art, polished to a sheen, meant to be admired in well-appointed living spaces. The influence of Gustav Klimt, known for his glittery, gold-leaf-encrusted art nouveau portraits, stylized landscapes and high-society clientele, is acknowledged in “Homage to Gustav,” in which a stand of trees and its reflection in a body of water fairly shimmer with a nimbus of magic. This bewitched and bewitching quality hovers, too, in a pair of stunners both titled “Enchanted Forest,” which borrow from Klimt but transcend him with a fairy-tale quality of O’Connor’s own; their deliciously complicated foregrounds with spectral trees, thickets of rich color and densely textured brushwork contrast with dark forest backgrounds, where night seems to be falling, gathering, looming. The enchantment is in progress. 

It’s wonderful to witness this mature artist finding a new gear at this stage of her career. She deserves every bit of the success, not to mention every penny, that is now coming her way. My hat’s off to her, both for this fabulous new body of work and for demonstrating that breaking out of the boxes that confine long-established artists can be both risky and rewarding. 

“Leaning Liminal” continues at New Editions Gallery, 500 W. Short St., through Sept. 5.

Hockensmith’s Fine Art Editions

“Folk Relief,” the new exhibition of works by a group of African American artists at Hockensmith’s Fine Art Editions, advances gallerist John Hockensmith’s heartening commitment to Black art in an environment where it isn’t always appreciated the way it should be in other galleries around the city and state. 

The show’s title refers both to the commonly applied label of “folk art” to three of these artists — LaVon Van Williams, Yvette Stephens Crossing and the late Father Norman Fischer of Lexington’s St. Peter Claver Catholic Church — and to the tradition of wood relief carving. Of these, Williams is the towering figure, literally and figuratively. His tall carved pieces, beautifully painted and polished, dominate the show even from their relatively subordinate display position in one of the smaller rooms. Their majesty and refinement are self-evident; so are their freshness and humor, as in the case of a LaVonified Superman figure. Also included in this show is a selection of the artist’s colorful works, mostly portraits, on paper, which demonstrate Williams’ Afro cubist leanings even more clearly than some of his sculpted pieces. Prolific for years, he is still working at the top of his powers.