OLD FRIENDS >>>

If you go to the new show at The Brick House you'll see a lot of stuff that looks very familiar, because gallery owner Peter MacDonald invited all his friends. It's a friendly, homey kind of gallery in a - what else? - brick house.

MacDonald wrote on his website:

"For this show I invited all the artists that have exhibited or been intimately involved with the gallery in the past year to submit what they would really like to show. Something they love. Something they almost don't want to sell, but will."

That last sentence indicates that if you see something you love in this show and purchase it, you're going to take something home that is very special.

If you visit The Brick House website you can get a nice preview of this show. The first thing you'll see there is "Are You Your Body?" a painted ceramic sculpture by Adriene Miller that stand 18inches high. It looks like a Rococo style fountain seen outside a villa in France or Italy, but with some decidedly modern touches. It's corny but fun to look at. The statuesque female nudes have eye appeal and the reclining male nude with the big schlong looks like a cross between a Norse god and a modern day satyr. I don't know what gives with the disembodied eye.

Robert Vogel's pastel "Figure" is a nice studio nude, not unlike your typical work from a college figure drawing class if by "typical" we mean by the best in the class. The drawing is highly energetic and well composed, and the use of light colors over a dark ground is exciting. I remember Vogel from previous shows at this gallery, and I've been impressed with his work.

If asked to pick a favorite from this show I would probably go with "Great Wide Open," a small oil painting by Alexis St. John. It's a slightly comical and slightly surrealistic painting of a bunny in the woods. It reminds me a lot of work by Joseph Park.

Another favorite would be Nancy Fields' painting "Unexpected Discovery." This one is also comically surrealistic. It pictures a woman in a red bathing suit swimming with fishes and a robot and a teapot, and the Easter Island statues. I'm usually not crazy about the kind of comical fantasy art Fields and St. John are showing, but these are inventive and nicely executed.

There's a lot to see in this show. The gallery is open only on Third Thursdays and by appointment, and for this show only a special opening Saturday, May 21, so don't miss your chance to see it.

[The Brick House, Invitational, Third Thursdays 4-9 p.m., May 21, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment, through Aug. 31, 1123 S. Fawcett, Tacoma, 253-627-0426, www.thebrickhousegallery.com]