The crowd early on at the 555 opening, including several of the artists.

Last night was the Third Thursday opening of “Alchemy: Science & Art” at the 555 Gallery, which featured work by Paula Schubatis in the main gallery. The collection featured large-scale paintings from her newest series, “Forging a Vernacular Identity,” which also figured in her recent BFA portfolio from University of Michigan Stamps School of Art and Design.

“The Dance of the Arcadians” by Paula Schubatis.

“Tire Fire.”

Schubatis’ work is exceptional, especially for an artist so early in her career, demonstrating a sense of balance with color that defies limitation of her palette, instead forming unity through tone. Though any given work might employ the entire spectrum of the rainbow, they present harmoniously and uniform in their effect. The paintings themselves seemed rather abstract as I was viewing them, but in reviewing my photos, the figurative elements come through quite strongly—I would encourage people to get down to the 555 and see the work for themselves!

“1117.”

“The Doldrums of Paradise.”

Also shown were selections of Schubatis’ fiber work, woven pieces which also demonstrate a mastery of color and form, executed in a very different manner. Schubatis creates her own materials for weaving, including the dyeing, and agreed that assembling them together before beginning was very much like creating the palette for a painting, though the two modes of working diverge greatly.

Woven works by Schubatis.

Detail from “Entropy Flux” from the “Cellulose” series.

In the smaller galleries (a.k.a. jail cells, the ghost of the former police precinct that was the building’s original use), there was digital work by Lauren Tanabe and 555 artist Huge Navarro. Tanabe’s work is projected electron microscopy photographs, a kind of artistic code to her work as a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Molecular Signaling from Columbia University and as a current Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Wayne State. Navarro’s work employs elements of negative projections and reflects an obsession with color that reaches out to meet his body of work as a painter. He is on a search for new colors, reversing images to find them, when necessary, all of which seems to be in the interest of connecting more deeply and precisely with the world through self-expression.

A still from Tanabe’s slide show of microbiology.

Strong colors in work by Hugo Navarro.

Negative imagery by Navarro, for a positive effect!

A great show, impressively curated by the (relatively) new Exhibitions Director Juli Lindsey.

555 Gallery: 2801 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 888-495-ARTS ; www.555arts.org