Anyone curious about what young artists are thinking today would do well to stop by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts to see the ambitious exhibition of paintings by 2007 Emerging Artist of the Year Adam Grossi.

I say "thinking" rather than "making" because Grossi's critique is the common denominator of this admirable body of work, varied in content and style but unified within the artist's aesthetic of content.

That critique is more social than political, to the extent that the two may be separated. And, in keeping with contemporary practice, the narratives, when present, invite interpretation rather than illustrate a point.

Overall, the mood is ominous in spite of Grossi's lively brushstrokes and vivid colors.

In "Ready for Anything," an abstracted young woman with braided blond hair bends near a lake, iron skillet in hand, a camping scenario made unsettling by the dark water and woods, the paint spatters covering her figure, and the suggestive title.

Rather than the escapist paradise generally conjured by the word, the dark-based "Island," sporting the stark remnants of three dead trees, juts like a ship loosened from its moorings over a space more void than water.

The small boy of "Scale" is sad, even in the company of his expressionless dog. The nude Garden of Eden-like couple of "When We're Home Again" appear oblivious in front of a tall black conifer behind which looms a huge cloaked figure.

Grossi skips pushing the high-profile buttons -- like war, poverty and racism -- and goes after the societal dispositions that enable such larger problems. In doing so, he brings responsibility closer to home, makes it more personal, suggests individual complicity, including that of the artist and of the viewer.

The blue and white composition "Current Conflict," then, rather than what one might expect from the title, comprises the wrapped -- blindfolded or even mummified? -- head and shoulders of a silent figure set against the repeating stylized waves of an endless sea.

The small "Speech Impediment" places a white balloon of the type used by cartoonists against a background divided into a sky-blue top third and grass-green bottom. The balloon pushes against and through, but can't get past, a row of vertical marks that suggest a picket fence. A commentary on the torpidity induced by suburban comfort? A confrontation with the history of landscape painting? Or are there more global implications?

Most menacing is the evolution of the conventional advertising image of a smiling man and woman collaged into "Yourself Again," reduced to the factitious toothy smiles of two otherwise faceless men of "Getaway," who reappear in one of the panels of "Driving Directions for Five Ornamental Surfaces," one with Hitler-like hair and moustache.

Grossi, a 2003 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and current MFA student at the University of Illinois in Chicago, is also herein engaging in a tug of war with the history of painting, playing upon cultural expectations for the medium while pushing its boundaries.

Some of this, as in "The King's Moat," comes across as academic exercise. But at other times, such as when he expands individual works by painting their wall surround, Grossi introduces new visual possibilities that give rise to alternative ways of seeing and connecting.

AOY counting

The count of 2007 Artist of the Year Delanie Jenkins' "11,280 Strands and Counting ..." had increased to 13,080 by the end of her last weekly installment Oct. 17.

Both exhibitions continue through Nov. 4 at 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. Admission is suggested $5 donation. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Jenkins, Grossi, Vicky A. Clark, who wrote the shows' catalog entries, and Robert Beckman, artist and director of Artists Image Resource, will discuss the exhibitions Saturday beginning at the Center and concluding at AIR ($15, students $5; reserve by end of today). Information: 412-361-0873 or www.pittsburgharts.org.

NGA director in town

Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art, paid homage to the Washington museum's Mellon legacy last week at Carnegie Mellon University during the symposium portion of the 2007 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Award Celebration.

Powell praised the foresight of the museum's founder, Andrew W. Mellon, and of his son Paul, placing them within the most significant category of benefactors, those who establish "broad but profound goals that give much latitude to future holders of their trust and legacy."

What Mellon did insist on was that his name not be used on the building, accessibility, free admission and a continuing high standard, Powell said.

The arts "carry the cultural past to the present and future," he said. Though this is a period of social and economic change, Powell remains confident in the museum's future "if we remember our core values and stay true to our mission."

Noting the "civilizing and rejuvenating values" of the arts, Powell expressed his hope that philanthropic ideals will endure. "There is something unique and meaningful, even magical in great art."

Powell shared the podium with James Wolfensohn, chairman of the investment firm Wolfensohn & Company, and M. Granger Morgan, CMU department head of engineering and public policy. PG executive editor David Shribman was panel moderator.