CAW Goes All In

Abigail Wilcox’s The Inner You is part anatomical drawing, part phantasmagoria. It somehow illustrates both the physical nature of the gray matter of the brain and the qualities of the uncountable thoughts inside it. Those thoughts could encompass just about anything: sharp cityscapes, bubbles in churned water, blue guitars, a dinosaur.

All of that and more is on display in ​“All In,” an exhibition running at Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street until Feb. 29. ​“All In” gathers the collective thoughts — and work — of the students in the many classes at CAW, with surprising and engrossing results. CAW offers classes for adults and children in drawing and painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, book arts, fiber, and pottery. All of them are represented in this sprawling show, which occupies both floors of CAW’s front gallery.

Among the most immediately eye-grabbing pieces is Tom Peterson’s Urban Shadows #2, thanks to its bold combination of oranges and blues. Peterson has the eye to find the sharp, abstract shapes that buildings can make against the sky. His choice of colors make it possible for those buildings to be anywhere, but he retains enough detail to hang onto their sense of place.

Ann Romano’s pottery is aptly titled; it looks almost like it could be an artifact from an archeological dig in East Asia. But it partakes enough of the modern that it feels like something that could belong in your house, and not walled off behind glass in a museum.

Carol Feiden makes a little nod to another blue guitar — or more accurately, blue guitarist — but her style is hers, particularly as she lets the paint bring out the personalities in the faces of her subjects.

In the category of fiber arts, Luis Cordeiro’s piece is both well designed and well woven; whoever the eponymous owner of the blanket is, he is both lucky, and, when the blanket comes off the walls on Feb. 29, warm.

Like Romano’s and Feiden’s pieces, Nan Adam’s print is contemporary with a nod to the past. The block of print is of modern design, but in its circular execution, it could almost belong on the border of a piece of ancient pottery.

Stephanie Anestis’s photograph captures an energy and playfulness in the bubbles teeming around her lens. It leaves one wondering just how many pictures she had to take before she got this one; though surely when she got it, she knew the effort had been worth it.

Janet Epstein’s piece is playful in a different way, part dreamcatcher and part musical instrument. Its title, meanwhile, reminds us of where the materials for the piece came from, and carries a small commentary about remembering the cost of making art or, for that matter, just about anything in material culture.

Luanne Kemp’s Woman Without Country makes a haunting strength of the process of creating a print of a face over and over again. Her series of 11 images could be the same woman forced to repeat the same trials over and over again, or perhaps 11 different women sharing all-too-similar stories.

And then there is the fantastical part dinosaur, part dragon created by sculptor Sherry Block. The piece, like Wilcox’s, is well named, and could also be a stand-in for a summarizing statement of the exhibit as a whole: happy omnibeast, indeed.

“All In” runs at the front gallery of Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., through Feb. 29. Visit the gallery’s website for more information.