Two solo and three group exhibitions at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts fill the galleries with variety and balance.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette photos Anna Divinsky's "Spindle," forms painted on silk and pinned to a wall, is included in "Red," at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Click photo for larger image.

The title and theme of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh exhibition is "Red," and it's surprising that the show isn't more volatile. After all, as Graham Shearing wittily remarks in his juror statement, "Anger, blood, sex come in its shades. [Red] is an honorary four-letter word."

The color, in a range of mutations and intensity, certainly is present. But missing, other than in some comparatively tepid probes, are the hot and cool ends of the spectrum: that burning with rage or passion and conceptual applications that present challenging ways of thinking. Most disappointing is when the color seems to make a gratuitous appearance.

Grumpiness aside, there are many commendable pieces.

Foremost among these is Anna Divinsky's "Spindle," more than 80 pupa-like forms of varying sizes, painted on silk and pinned individually to a wall, resembling flames as much as the object that inspired them.

Divinsky is among several artists -- including Connie Cantor, Adrienne Heinrich, George Kollar, Jessie Miller and Kathleen Zimbicki -- exhibiting in more than one of the group shows, and she alone is represented in all three.

"Mended Landscape" by Nancy Kountz Click photo for larger image.

William D. Wade, a Post-Gazette photographer, captures the color's optic fire so glowingly in three works, such as "Red Television," that it's difficult to accept that they're ink-jet prints on paper, not backlit.

George Roland's digital animation "Red Square Dances," another exploration of the power of saturated color, suffers from presentation (too low, overly lit, trafficked area), a problem that plagues the display of artwork employing new technology, by AAP and of others as well.

Joan Iverson Goswell again shows an exceptional politically inspired artist book, "George's Cabal," red ribbons streaming from its five panels like rivulets of blood.

"Mended Landscape," an unexpected blending of fine and coarse, by Nancy Kountz, is daring, wise and elegant.

Enigmatic is Paul Bowden's perfectly formed wax "Two Bodies," nude males about 16 inches in length that, because of their red tint, seem engorged with blood. They lie on a pedestal, one facing up, the other down, but in straight, standing postures, locked somewhere between tenacity and defeat.

	"The Green Eyebrow" by Kathleen Zimbicki Click photo for larger image.

Among other notable works are Laura Tabakman's "Tar Vessel," for its tactile media mix; Zimbicki's funky, sloe-eyed "The Green Eyebrow"; classic ceramic forms by Joshua Green and Valda Cox; and Kollar's "Sun Burn," a black-and-white photograph of a couple on a beach that anticipates red.

But all of the 50 works by 37 artists selected for the exhibition are significant, because they show the directions that individual artist's careers are taking as well as AAP as a whole.

The Pittsburgh Society of Artists' exhibition "Syncopation" hasn't the consistency of "Red," but again, is insightful as a barometer of regional expression.

Standouts include watercolors by Ruth Richardson ("Play Off") and Peggy Habets ("Act III, Wozzeck's Anguish"), Marilyn Palamara's acrylic "Cactus Tremolo," Ben Schachter's mod modulars "Extended Solo Panel" 1 and 2, and Joy Fairbanks' photograph "Lucca Plane."

Also noteworthy are Divinsky's two entries and the four impeccable pencil drawings by Jessie A. Miller, exhibited here and in "Red."

"Reflections" by Jessie A. Miller, at the AAP show. Click photo for larger image.

The two solo shows are a contrast in style and material.

University of Pittsburgh faculty member Ken Batista exhibits a dozen of his "Recent Works," transcendent abstract paintings on canvas or paper that reverberate, like a low tone, with contained visual and emotive force: mysterious, beautiful and fine. They're like the first imagining one has of a day -- its color, its light, its possibility -- in the moment between reaching for and pulling back the curtain.

Jeffrey Phelps' celebratory "Fused, Painted and Blown" glassworks, by comparison, flow into the viewer's space, capturing and reflecting light and color, their surfaces mitigating boundaries between physical and perceived. The work ranges from dense alignments of fused color in shallow bowl forms to large open vessels with undulating color and lips. A student, and now instructor, at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Phelps studied also at Pilchuck Glass School, in Washington state, with notable Klaus Moje.

"Up Over and Down Under," a sprightly collaboration between the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh and the Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association, was reviewed in the PG last Sunday ("Art Review: Wizards of expression / Australian, local fiber artists combine for aesthetically pleasing show").

Individuals and organizations are taking advantage of the opportunity offered as the Center continues to re-emerge as a viable space for local artists. It's imperative that high standards are established and maintained for exhibitions and exhibitors so that an audience of visitors and collectors is attracted and given reason to regularly return.

The exhibitions continue through April 23 with the exception of "Red," which closes March 11. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. At 6 p.m. tomorrow Ken Batista will speak about his work, and at 6 p.m. March 16 members of The Fiberarts Guild will speak. Information: 412-361-0873 or www.pittsburgharts.org.