A Matter of Form

The two artists now at the Orlando Gallery take divergent paths in the margins between representation and abstraction, and in ways that can fool expectations.

Renee Amitai’s assertive paintings are abstract expressions with real world links, while David Starrett’s watercolors of nudes veer slyly away from reality into some other realm.

With her show, titled “Beyond Boundaries,” Amitai explores her variation on the post-abstract expressionist instinct, filling her paintings with jagged, Franz Kline-ish gestures, and generally courting a dynamic interplay of forms.

They suggest spiritual questioning, or natural phenomena of a rugged, explosive sort.

Bold black markings seem to spray energy against a red background in “Spiritual Renewal,” while “Elevation Mystique” finds a crude blue square nestled in a series of thick dark lines posing as a structural framework.

An analogy to the unruly wave forms of sound is made in “Edifice of Sound (Window),” another black and red piece, warm and intense, all at once.

Starrett’s charmed and strange nude studies are less about specifics of anatomy than about general figurative form and the play of light and color.

Shadows and patterns play off his groups of nudes, usually lounging or stretching out in cabanas or other way stations of leisure.

Dancing nudes pay homage to later Matisse.

Throughout, these figures are vehicles of expression for Starrett’s supple use of brush, seeping color, and clever manipulation of space. The watercolor medium becomes him.

BE THERE

Renee Amitai and David Starrett, through Dec. 31 at the Orlando Gallery, 14553 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays; (818) 789-6012.