A sense of the scientific thematically binds together the work of Carolyn Brown, Norman Kary and Kendall Stallings currently on view at Craighead Green Gallery through July 18th.  In a departure from her earlier work, Carolyn Brown has turned her lens towards photographing flowers in their purest glory.  Her peonies, anemones, hibiscus flowers and others radiate with a microscopic intensity.  Their richly saturated colors float against black backgrounds. The work feels like an updated, color version of Karl Blossfeldt’s floral still lives from the 1920s and ‘30s.  But unlike Blossfeldt, Brown also brings species together to create floral collages that evoke the seasons as well as nature’s sensuality. 

Norman Kary is an artist whose work continues to grow while always maintaining the same handwriting.  Though most of the work is small, its quirky juxtapositions of seemingly random bits of imagery, from maps, religious icons and news footage, among other things, demand our attention.  Spending time with the work has its payoff in unexpected surprises.  Dada Object, for example, looks like nothing more than an old ice cream scoop.  But a grip of that scoop yields a delicious surprise.  As with Kary’s inspiration, Joseph Cornell, it is assemblage work of many complex and accessible layers.

As a painter Kendall Stallings is a master of texture.  From paper bags to fabric, his paintings have an incredibly tactile quality.  They remind me of Mark Tansey’s work, with its sense of irony and, in many cases, isolation.  Wingtip and Platform are morbidly humorous analogies to the demise of corporate culture.  His beautifully rendered realism infused with a surrealist tone, makes it as interesting as it is evocative.

Three-person exhibitions can be tricky, especially when one artist clearly outshines the other two.  This exhibition is a powerhouse, showcasing the unique talents of three outstanding mid-career artists.