Berk, Casis tackle different angles on abstract art

In a world that prefers the exact and specific, abstract or nonrepresentational art has a lot of defending to do. Its greatest strength is its open-ended kind of meaning where many interpretations are possible. Its greatest pleasure also lies in this freedom.

Two young artists sharing an exhibit at Howard House this month — Leo Saul Berk, 29, and Donnabelle Casis, 33 — are very different, but both have chosen nonrepresentational approaches rather than straightforward, easily identifiable images. Berk, who received a master of fine arts degree from the University of Washington in 1999, offers a somewhat more accessible approach. His "Surveying" series is based on the idea of topographic maps.

He has included two ink-on-vellum drawings that resemble elevation contour maps but actually trace the grain on plywood sheets. Toying with the idea that we are seeing something specific, Berk uses the imaginary map source as an excuse for sinuous, concentric curves and, in the case of the lacquer-on-plywood paintings, for built-up surfaces of varying depths and densities.

Whether the maps that inspire the paintings — and one huge sculpture — begin as specific sites is irrelevant. Color, surface, form and shape matter far more here.

Enter Berk's imaginary territories and marvel at the artist's ingenious ways of reinventing abstract painting. Rendering the picture's surface sculpturally is light years from classic modern art, wherein the flatness of the surface was considered desirable. For Berk, an industrial look predominates, especially in works like "Hogbacks Back to Back" and "Pinnacles," with their crisp, brittle tones of gray, tan, pink and Astro-turf green.

The paintings, while clever and colorful, are overwhelmed by "Ribbon," a tall piece of Douglas fir tree-trunk bark peeled back and rolled upright into a walk-in spiral at the room's center. Nature and ecology have become cardinal issues for Berk. The plotting of land and the rescuing of tree innards point toward a reconsideration of landscape, not just abstract painting.

Casis' work blooms

Casis, a 1997 M.F.A. graduate of the UW, is also rethinking landscape and nature, if not abstract painting. Her six oils on canvas or linen retread the familiar ground of gestural painting, chiefly the abstract expressionism of Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky, active in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. In Casis' work, ambiguous shapes are caught in a dangerous riptide between spontaneous brush strokes and coherent form.

In her best show yet, Casis has expanded her palette, adding sunny yellows and greens, juicy pinks and reds. These progress from the restricted pinks and greens of her prior shows. Everything seems to bustle outward from each picture's center. When the paint marks and fragmentary drawing coalesce, as in "Untitled (22-04)" and "(22-02)," there is a pleasing sense of a garden blooming profusely.

Surprisingly, the brightly colored botanical or intestinal shapes on the five framed ink-on-paper drawings seem too tight, stalled and inert. If they are seen as the artist working out her ideas before releasing them in paint, it shows how awkward the process can become. If they must stand on their own, they do not measure up to the exuberance of the paintings.

A cutting-edge showcase

No longer the new kid on the block, Howard House proprietor Billy Howard celebrates his gallery's fifth anniversary with the Berk-Casis show. Along with James Harris Gallery and Esther Claypool Gallery, Howard House is cutting-edge showcase for young Seattle artists.

Another UW School of Art grad, the South Dakota-reared dealer has attracted lots of attention from out-of-town collectors and curators as well as savvy local art lovers.

Like Harris and Greg Kucera, Howard exhibits at the Chicago Art Fair in May of each year, considered the nation's top contemporary-art trade fair.

Add a well-designed Web site and a sparkling white-cube space, and Howard House seems not only timely and professional, but a gallery that will continue to have a significant impact on the entire regional art scene and perhaps beyond.