Kelly once created paintings in which dark, portentous shapes loomed symmetrically over grey-brown backdrops. While possessing a physical and spiritual gravity, their presence, however arresting, inspired a kind of finite melancholy. His last show at Howard House in 2004 revealed tighter, leaner, pared-down forms. The increased use of blacks, red, and whites over the old greys and browns led to a more dynamic field.

These works are dazzling -- the slight irregularities of the patterns, which can resemble those of Nordic sweaters or computer circuit boards from a distance, make the tiny, translucent squares seem to dance before our eyes. Theory suggests a philosopher's cosmological construction; Plot, a sky-scrapered film noir landscape; Metro, a city teeming with human activity. The smaller Base series, arranged on the wall in a grid pattern of their own, worked together much like the irregular squares and rectangles do in the paintings themselves.

After a morning spent looking at Lorenzo Ghiberti's newly restored gates at the Seattle Art Museum, Kelly's paintings were a welcome reprieve. The show, entitled Future Perfect, runs through February 23rd.

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Jim Demetre

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Victoria