Radiance Amid the Rain

[November 22nd, 2006] Dreary weather notwithstanding, November has proved a radiant month in the local gallery scene. At PDX , Nancy Lorenz flexes her compositional and material muscles in showstoppers like Night Sky I and II, which explode with rhythmic gestures but are born of a painstaking process involving mother-of-pearl, pigment and shellac. 925 NW Flanders St., 222-0063. Closes Dec. 2.

At her husband Mark Woolley 's eponymous gallery, painter Angelina Woolley deploys her substantial talent for surface effects in works such as Danse des Insects #2. With its neo-Impressionist dashes of color, the painting recalls the brocade and luxuriant chinoiserie of John Singer Sargent's Lady Agnew of Lochnaw. 120 NW 9th Ave., Suite 210, 224-5475. Closes Dec. 2.

At Butters , Matthew Haggett retains his signature tiki-chic aesthetic but evolves it in unexpected directions. This invigorating show foxtrots across manifold media: paintings, stencil-work on the hardwood floors, Plexiglas pieces hanging from the ceiling and even a 3-D stereoscope for viewing the artist's anamorphic distortions of circles and ovals. 520 NW Davis St., 2nd floor, 248-9378. Closes Dec. 2.

As part of Rake Gallery 's artist exchange with a Las Vegas collective, two Sin City artists offer up multimedia works influenced by comics and graphic design. Joseph Watson paints panoramic narratives of people on buses and bridges, imbuing the works with wry commentary on reincarnation and multiculturalism. Danny Roberts shows politically aware work critiquing the soul-deadening effects of corporate culture. His depictions of stylized suicide are particularly effective. 325 NW 6th Ave., 750-0754. Closes Nov. 30.

Gallery Homeland mounts a strong group show of some superb emerging and mid-career artists, all of whom are donating their work for cheap ($20-$200) to benefit the venue's 2007 programming. Fresh off the Oregon Biennial, Holly Andres offers a DVD collaboration with Grace Carter, while Jo Ann Kemmis returns to the scene with vibrant abstractions owing much to the late, great Hans Hofmann. Paige Saez incorporates vinyl and stitchery into her nicely composed work on paper, while Max Turner's shadowbox riffs on the interplay between two- and three-dimensionality. In the haunting Last Sight, narrative painter Alexis Mollomo depicts a child enclosed in a box or casket, an androgynous spirit floating above it. Josh Arseneau's works on paper are every bit as good as—perhaps even more energetic than—his paintings. 916 SE 34th Ave., 819-9656. Closes Dec. 2.