Through June 10^th at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, you can catch the show “Remainder.” Four artists make up this group exhibition of photographic abstractions: Amy Beecher, Aspen Mays, Klea McKenna and Brent Wahl. All of the artists wield process in intriguing, yet entirely divergent ways.

Brent Wahl has two stylistically opposed images near the entrance to the gallery. On one hand he has completely formal photos in an untitled series. The images are visually contrasted and somewhat jarring, composed of crisscrossing lines and geometric segments. They are optical illusions that convey the appearance of movement with parallel bars of red, black and white. Just across the way, Wahl displays a simple diptych of crumbled materials, one of black on white, one of white on black. The material in question is actually ash, and the subjects are burned down West Philadelphia schools. When the education system is teetering and the debate over public schools in inner cities is hot, Wahl depicts only their remains – a sullen message in troubling times.

More colorful and somewhat more visceral is Amy Beecher. She works in splashes and smears of hues whose process is not immediately accessible. One work hangs from the ceiling, attached to a roll that is sprawled out across the floor. The resulting discarded fabric lies in a pile that toes the line between refuse and art. A roll of paper towels sopping up spilled juice or a commentary on the human body, either way her bold works demand to be seen just as much as they may defy explanation.

The project “Sun Ruins” by Aspen Mays is especially interesting in that the photos were not taken by the artist. They are old silver-gelatin prints of images of the sun from 1957 – the infancy of such depictions. The white orbs with their sunspots are somewhat recognizable to those of us who frequent science websites, but at a time before photos of the sun, they surely would have been far more surreal. These specific photos were the discarded batch of images that were thrown out of the original study, but outside of their scientific context they still assemble a remarkable image of our planet’s star. With a lens aimed back at the ’50s, it is also telling of just how far we’ve come with our astronomical observations and studies of stars.

Klea McKenna’s photos are derived from a few nights of utilizing the Project Artaud theater in San Francisco as her darkroom. Some of the photos are wholly abstract, while others focus on specific elements of the theater’s interior, like electrical plugs, fixtures or wires. Entitled “Dark Star” after the Grateful Dead song of the same name, the psychedelic counterculture of ’60s-era San Francisco comes alive in her images. She views the mundane in colorful new ways that are ethereal and just out of grasp.

On May 5^th, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is also hosting its Third Annual Book Fair, in which local, national and international publishers and artists will sell their various books and prints. Stop by the fair and see what they have to offer, but be sure not to miss “Remainder” in the gallery.

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is located in the Crane Arts Building at 1400 N. American Street; 215-232-5678; philaphotoarts.org.