Time often reveals the merits of artwork. Case in point: the striped paintings of Terri Priest. From the vantage of retrospect, the relevance of her art becomes even more potent. Her work will be at Hampden Gallery from February 4 through March 4 with an opening reception on February 10, from 2-5pm.

In 1962 Worcester-based painter, Terri Priest became deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement. For almost two years, she put her painting on hold. Eventually, because she couldn't hold back what she needed to put in some creative form, she began a series of paintings that reflected her vision of civil rights. Priest explains: "I tried traditional imagery but decided that the impact of traditional figuration was not what I was looking for. I wanted a more abstract solution. So I started the black and white paintings that I called Organic Interaction."

While working with black and white, Priest found that the extreme contrasts in color caused an optical illusion called the moiré effect - a synergistic phenomenon - which in turn led the viewer to perceive a spectrum of colors. This discovery reinforced her efforts to make "one plus one equal more than two." Her colored pencil drawings followed. Using the secondary colors of orange, green, and violet, she discovered that the juxtaposition of any two of these colors, within a certain range of values and intensities, produced the appearance of the primary colors yellow, red and blue. Through her process of reversing traditional optical color mixture, Priest has succeeded in making work that appeals to both the mind and the eye.

Image caption: Terri Priest, Organic Interation 3, 1963, acrylic on canvas, 72" x 48". Timothy Cummings' meticulous technique brings to life his portraits of androgynous youth marred by unidentified spots, suggestive of alienation, sexuality, and the possibility of violence. His mixture of technical clarity with moral ambiguity imparts a charge to his new work that conjures both dreams and nightmares. Cummings' painting brings both literal and metaphorical light to the issues facing contemporary youth. Cumming's painting will be on view in Hampden Gallery from March 11 - April 18.

Hampden Gallery's hours are Monday to Thursday noon to 5pm, and Sun., 2pm - 5pm, while the University is in session.

Image caption: Timothy Cummings, Spot Portraits (detail), 2001, acrylic on board, 10" x 8" each.