From magazines and newspapers Félix Angel embeds hundreds of images into abstract patterns that must be seen close up. "Memorial Day" contains references to both war and remembrance.

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Delicate drawings on translucent vellum by Minna Philips are installed in a window at Strathmore. The effect is restrained, but much like stained glass.
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Wilmer Wilson IV does installations with ordinary materials and then photographs them.
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A compelling "Sense of Place" and ghostly presence emerges from Susana Raab's photo of William Faulkner's telephone in a corner of his home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi.

From magazines and newspapers Félix Angel embeds hundreds of images into abstract patterns that must be seen close up. "Memorial Day" contains references to both war and remembrance.

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Two interesting and high-quality exhibits, full of experiment and new ideas, are on view: “Fine Artists in Residence” at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda and “ARTbeat” at the Artery Plaza Gallery in Bethesda.

The Strathmore show is the culmination of FineAIR, a six-month residency program that paired local emerging artists with established professional artist mentors in related disciplines and media. The show demonstrates how successful this program has been in creating a nurturing environment for both mentors and AIRs. Included in the exhibit is new work by the four AIRs as well as work by their mentors. For its variety, its conceptual breadth and technical excellence, this is among the best exhibits I have seen in this venue. Kudos to Fine Art Program and Education Manager Holly Haliniewski who is largely responsible for managing the program and organizing the exhibit.

Artist mentor Susana Raab’s photographs from her series “A Sense of Place” feature the homes of renowned Southern writers William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor. Taken with a Holga camera, known for its cheap construction, light leaks and a simple lens that produces vignetting and other visual distortions, the photos are soaked with the spirits of the writers that emanate from their creative spaces. Among the most compelling is a photo of “Faulkner’s Telephone, Rowan Oak, Oxford, MI” with numbers scribbled on the corner wall above the old telephone. Using pigment prints on luster paper, Raab’s photos have a vintage feel and a richness of color that verge on the cinematographic.

AIR Wilmer Wilson’s installation “Do You Have Faith in the Spectre’s Lung?” creates the sense of a grotto or a sacred space within the classical architecture of the Mansion at Strathmore. Made of more than 1,000 ordinary paper lunch bags, inflated with the artist’s own breath, the work references religious themes and creation myths where the creative breath of divinity generates life. Hanging from a mesh armature, the bags exude a scent that speaks of many possible things, but reminded me most of Renaissance grottos created to house ancient sculpture or religious figures. Wilson’s photos of other installations with bags, inkjet printed on canvas, resemble highly realistic paintings, and are almost equally compelling. This Howard University undergraduate is one to watch.

AIR Minna Philips was drawn to the grotto that actually exists on the Strathmore campus. The grotto was a place of worship for the Sisters of the Holy Cross who once lived in the Mansion. Philips’ carefully rendered drawings on vellum of the now overgrown spot, deconstructed into closely regarded fragments, are installed in one of the Mansion’s giant gridded windows, in a way mimicking the effect of stained glass. Through Tim Tate’s mentorship, the artist worked at the Washington Glass School where she made a glass prism installed in a black shadow box. Peering inside, one gets ghostly views of the statue of the Virgin that once occupied the grotto.

F. Lennox Campello, a mentor, is represented in the exhibit with two large drawings, each enhanced with tiny video projections inserted into them. Of the two, my favorite is “The Incantation of Frida Kahlo (An Homage to Kate Braverman).” An intense charcoal and conte crayon portrait of Frida by Campello is paired with text from Braverman’s 2002 novel about the Mexican artist and a video showing three aspects of her life. The video idea might have been suggested by Tate’s work that frequently includes videos inside his glass reliquaries, such as his piece “Give and Take” in the current show.

The paintings of AIR Brittany Sims, inspired by her experience in New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina, are full of pain and hope. Executed on shower curtains that by themselves suggest displacement, Sims makes references to older art to carry her content. Similarly, Solomon Slyce’s digital photos are painfully satirical riffs on well-known images of older art, using these to create dialogue on social issues and racial stereotypes.

The spirit of experiment and unusual media is also very much a part of “ARTbeat,” an exhibit curated by Mariano Ugalde, a gallerist from Bolivia who operates on a global scale. He is the son of Gastón Ugalde, an important Bolivian artist whose work is represented in the show with an installation of Bolivian woven blankets, part of “Marcha por la vida (March for Life),” a 2008 activist performance piece. Two of his ironic collages made completely of coca leaves are also here — one inscribed “Coca Cola Classic” referencing the fact that the “coca” in the soda, an iconically American drink, was originally the stimulant chewed by Bolivians for centuries to overcome the effects of high elevation. Sonia Falcone, also Bolivian, is represented by “Windows of the Soul,” a magical installation with video projection. A room-sized black box is lined with glass mirrors on two sides. A series of wooden slats stand together almost like figures on a stage between the mirrors. These are the objects of the sound/video projection that appear to extend into infinity in the mirrors. The inspiring work offers an unusually strong emotional experience that has provoked tears in some viewers.

The magazine and newspaper collages of Colombian artist Félix Angel are among the most remarkable works in the Artery Plaza exhibit. From his “Paper Archaeologies Series,” they range from 40 inch squares (“Memorial Day”) to much smaller pieces, using images from printed media that he carefully folds into small strips and arranges in intricate abstract patterns. Deconstructing the original images and creating new ones, the collages at first look like elegant abstractions. Closer inspection reveals fragments of the originals, often repeated, with a wide range of referenced content. The artist has said that in working with these image shards, he emulates the role of the archaeologist — hence the title of the series — who attempts to find meaning from bits of history.