The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh have been flying under the radar recently but right now they're hot.

		The exhibition continues through Wednesday in the Frick Fine Arts Building, across from the Carnegie in Oakland. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Admission is free. For information, call 412-648-2400.

Earlier this year, small-format works by AAP members were exhibited by the Third Street Gallery in Carnegie.

A "New Members Exhibition," featuring work by 58 of more than 100 members accepted between 2001 and 2003 is at the University Art Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, through Wednesday.

An opening reception for the exhibition "Animal Attraction," comprising member work, is being held from 6 to 9 tonight at Fe Gallery in Lawrenceville (412-860-6028 for information).

And on July 9 the organization's 94th Annual Exhibition opens at Carnegie Mellon University's Regina Gouger Miller Gallery.

In the summer of 2001, the AAP closed its Downtown gallery due to lack of money and two years later sold its building to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Without a space, the group hasn't regularly presented new artists, but it's making up for it with the "New Members Exhibition," a generally good, lively and varied show.

One work by each artist is included in a range of expression that encompasses traditional painting, the tricky realm of art/craft and conceptual works.

A majority of the works are two-dimensional, with little photography represented and a profusion of collage; however, Dorothy de Groat brings these together nicely in "Future Unknown," which combines six photographs of rusty and deteriorating industrial sites, linked and given emotional impact by their brown and gray palette.

Enigmatic works engage and provide food for thought: Jennifer Bechak's installed "Sleep Is Irrelevant," a spare cot with pillows at both ends; Aline Shader's painting "The Entertainer," sensually dressed but made up like a clown; Marinda Stretavsky's sculptural "The Sign of the Cross," which suggests sacrilege or sacrifice; and the time-altered world of Chris Mozley's painting "Floating."

More traditional, but not restricted to convention, are handsome if vastly different portraits by Christine Swann, the pastel "No 'O' in Luise, Please"; Geoffrey Beadle, "Head Survey: Image #4"; and Jackie Kresak, "Blue Man 2," the latter two in oil.

Notable are Ruth Richardson's watercolor "Impact," one of a number of exceptional abstracts she's recently completed, and Karen Chapin's breezy impressionistic oil, "Cloud Nine," which also illustrates how important good framing is for an artwork.

Sculpture highlights include Judi Charlson's splendid cast glass triptych "Navigating Solitude"; Joseph Indovina's "From the Garden," a sinuous figure risen from black walnut; and Michael Smithhammer's ceramic "Little Soldier." Some will be bothered by the unfortunate firing crack in the latter, but the piece's style, joinings, glaze, patterning and movement are evidence of the artist's general facility with clay.

Fiber artist Shawn Quinlan's "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" is winning in technique, concept and presentation. Combining a faux velvet picture of Jesus exposing his Sacred Heart with applique bombs and fiery licks, tumultuous quilted spirals and airplanes probably cut from material used to decorate a boy's room, he creates potent political commentary.

Judith Musser comments more subtly on women's immigration experience in her beautifully composed "Equilibrium II -- Journey." By overlaying shadowed figures, Jeanne Daly adds mystery to a tourist scape in the solid "Entering Positano." Lucienne Wald's "Sacrificial Ram," with religious and feminist overtones, gains pointillist energy from brightly colored enlarged pixels.

Some works don't stand up to their company and raise the question of why certain artists were selected, a question that will be answered one way or another over time.

But for the most part, these new members are indicative of a reinvigorated organization set to reclaim its local prominence.