There’s nothing wrong with landscapes—how they stretch out like a recumbent body, waiting to be touched. Or how they invite viewers to wander through hills and enjoy the colors of a bright sunny day. Scott Addis loves the darkness at day’s end, and his paintings force introspection and quiet meditation on mortality, like those late-nineteenth-century romantics Albert Ryder and Ralph Blakelock. A dark, large barn looming as evening falls—what could be more evocative? Addis, who grew up in a small Pennsylvania town, has got the image-connected-to-feelings of a great painter—but what he doesn’t yet have is the control, the mastery of drawing and tone to make his visions feel endlessly, mysteriously compelling on closer inspection. If he continues to look at George Inness, however, eventually he will get there. Addis credits this Cincinnati fellow, Greg Storer, as his composition teacher, and that site has links to many other excellent Midwestern landscape painters. (Chris Miller)
Through December 1 at Gallery KH, 311 W. Superior.
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