A stylized and subversive group exhibition entitled artNOW:Baltimore, curated by Alex Castro and Cara Ober, opened Friday at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. The exhibit was hosted at the Kohl Gallery at the Gibson Center for the Arts.

This colorful multimedia show includes works by Christian Benefiel, Leslie Furlong, Andrew Liang, René Treviño and Karen Yasinsky. It was a rather impressive gathering of award-winning artists who have exhibited internationally.

Curators Alex Castro and Cara Ober have facilitated an interactive cinematic journey through these vibrant experimental installations. With their narrative and evocative nature, these works present a collective story that Ober acknowledges is “steeped in the subtleties of modern experience”.

Entering the gallery space, one is faced with a grimacing seven-foot Godzilla, among the many colorful elements in Andrew Liang’s immersive Desert installation.

Liang’s installation consists of dozens of colorful paintings on board, cut and finished into tantalizing shapes arranged in lively juxtaposition. A closer look reveals portrayals of confrontational racial stereotypes and a world of stark contrasts, in which even the most fanciful storybook elements, such as pancake flying saucers topped with butter and syrup, are engaged in various modes of attack and retreat.

This subtle complexity keeps the viewer searching for the narrative, all the while projecting their own experience onto the outlandish elements so carefully imagined and crafted by the artist.

Entering the equally colorful world of René Treviño’s recent work, one’s attention is immediately captured by the Bestiary series. This bright trio of mylar panels depicting antique, stylized animal forms in red, yellow and blue, is brought into full focus when set against the Propaganda series, which includes 56 works, each 14″ by 11″, installed in a grid on the central wall of the gallery.

The lexicon of Treviño’s work is a fascinating reliquary of iconic symbols, contrasting ancient Greek museum pieces depicted in black and white with Aztec calendars in rainbow colors.

A visual pinball game ensues in which the viewer must cope with trying to assimilate the vernacular and simultaneously make narrative and visual connections between juxtaposed panels, an arrangement Ober refers to as an “ongoing codex of subversive details.”

This piece, and the entire exhibition, is a lyrical example of bridging the gap between the cognoscenti of art and artists and those who are sometimes puzzled by such arcane content or mystified as to the inherent value in such experiences.

The works of Karen Yasinsky strike a contemplative balance, between her elegant and glowing pointillist ink portraits and her hand-drawn video animation entitled Audition. This work suggests the exhibition journey is shifting to an introverted tone, almost beckoning us to make a willing escape from the boisterous and confrontational works in the front rooms of the spacious gallery.

Yasinsky teaches at Johns Hopkins University and at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has shown her work in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Berlin. All of the artists here are notable for their reach and accomplishments and Yasinsky’s work, in particular, conveys the thoughtful qualities and immaculate craft that make this exhibition so remarkable.

Around the corner you’ll find Benefiel’s The efficacy of wishing, a fascinating and functional installation inviting the viewer to inflate an array of prosthetic lungs by blowing through an electronic apparatus resembling a wind-sock. The real thrust of the piece is the illustration of a how a seemingly insignificant wish can have a greater impact than anticipated.

Benefiel’s work carries a conceptual narrative within its spare, minimalist framework. It is every bit as optimistic as its more overt companions, perhaps even more so. The work manifests the ultimate expression of optimism, a wish come true.

“I am interested in the action that separates hope from optimism … and a methodical balance between tedium, activity and entertainment.” -Christian Benefiel

In the final chamber of the exhibition are the photographs of Leslie Furlong, likewise minimalist in both content and presentation. The photographs of desolate urban asphalt in her Parking Lot series yield a reverent though ironic impression of the decline of nature.

Also featured is her video, Tokyo to Osaka. Shot from a moving train, the camera’s point of view is displayed split between two channels on two side-by-side flat screens. Cityscapes and countryside pass by drawing us to the images as if to the windows of the train.

Such a poignant moment of departure makes the experience of artNOW:Baltimore all the more compelling, as the viewer turns the corner and goes back to the beginning. Once again I found myself immersed in a brightly-colored cavalcade of whimsy and fanciful impressions of a bleak and believable future. And even after I circled through the nautilus of this exhibition for the third or fourth time I still found myself surprised at what I was only then discovering.

I highly recommend making the trip to Chestertown to see this stunning, world-class exhibition, which continues through March 30.

The Kohl Gallery is located inside the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD, 21620.

The gallery is open Wednesday and Thursday, 1 to 5 pm, Friday, noon to 6 pm, and Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 pm.