THE THAW is the second of a two-part exhibition that forms the debut series at Mehr (Midtown) Gallery, located at 436 West 18th Street, above the Midtown Chelsea auto center.

THE THAW is comprised of painting, installation, sculpture, and photo-alteration. Much of its work is a study in abstraction: from elaborate composition to gestural expression, the field, as James Hyde has said, is yet young. Tonico Lemos Auad and Hisae Ikenaga work respectively in stone and foam, their practice bordering between representation and abstraction. Tonico Lemos Auad's obsessively polished stones from Brazil and other journeys are formally arranged as a mandala, or a faceless face - the mask. Josh Podoll's systematically organized painting depicts abstract landscape with a galactic edge. This space is at once meditative and visually awakening- something is off-kilter in it, unnatural, riveting. Karin Davie's gestural painting has every bit of warmth at its core: dark lush browns and deep reds and blues flow like traces through sand. James Hyde reveals the material elements of his painting in a series of acts: from painting to photograph to painting again, each translation bears a discreet visual interpretation. Nils Erik Gjerdevik's totemic paintings on paper carry the eye upward, embracing sophisticated graphic design and art historical reference, in their manner alluring, energetic, and bracingly modern.

This exhibition is followed by WHISPERS BEHIND THE WALL, including Dale Berning, Chikara Matsumoto, Kazuyuki Takezaki, and Soju Tao, curated by Atsuko Ninagawa, and opens December 16. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10-6pm. The closest subways are the A, C, E, or L trains to West 14th Street.

Mehr (Midtown) Gallery thanks the many individuals who helped realize its early shows. Among them: Andrew Clark, Jimi Dams of Envoy Gallery, James Dorment, Jari Lager of Union Gallery, Hudson of Feature, Inc., Amy Smith-Stewart of Mary Boone Gallery, and the participating artists for their good work.