Downtown at Le Meridien Hotel at 1421 Arch Street, curator Gaby Heit has organized a small show of work by local artists. All of the showcased artists besides Liz Goldberg have formerly exhibited at Prelude, Heit’s gallery, which focuses on promoting and displaying work by students and recent graduates. Other highlighted artists include: Bradford Carmichael, Angela McQuillan, Lynne Filion and Benjamin Gonzales.

The interior of the hotel is already well attuned to the feel of a gallery space. There is a dim ambiance and dark wood paneling instead of whitewashed walls, but the architecture of the building and the interior design are crisp and inviting.

Behind the bar is screen looping the video collaboration between Liz Goldberg and Warren Bass – the only non-painting in the show. Set to the beatboxing skills of Edward Snyder, the trippy animation follows a squiggly character as he wanders the streets of Philadelphia and appears in various well-known locations around the city. Goldberg also has two paintings nearby which each feature a seated woman rendered in hues of yellow and red.

Benjamin Gonzales paints haunting close-ups of faces in shades of blue. The series here is somewhat serene despite the title of “Manic.” Both paintings display an intuitive sense of movement. In “Manic 1,” the subject’s face appears blurred, while in “Manic 2” the image is displayed in frames. Gonzales’ paintings fit the atmosphere of the lobby stunningly, and the shadowy, blurred faces almost seem like a snapshot of a conversation at the hotel bar.

The work by Bradford Carmichael is an image of a factory or warehouse with a few stray piles of boxes. Wrapping around the boxes and through the interior of the space is a primary-colored beam of light. It snakes its way amongst the crates like some sort of ghostly entity, but it ultimately remains a mystery. This painting is in sharp opposition to Lynne Filion’s yellow wash and dripping sheets of paint. Her work, “Transparency,” is entirely nonobjective and the layers paint focus on texture and shade instead of content.

Last, but certainly not least, is the microbiological “Sticky Spiral of Confusion” by Angela McQuillan. The red, triangular patterns and meandering tendrils create an amazing landscape of amoeba-like forms which run headlong into hard-edged lines. Her work is memorable for anyone who has visited Prelude Gallery, and if you’re looking for more than the few pieces in Le Meridien Hotel, that is certainly a great place to start.