Artists Compliment, Complement At Kehler Liddell

One photographer names two of his abstract compositions ​“Pattern Study #23061” and ​“Pattern Study 1008.” Another gives specifics: ​“Catwalks, Baldwin Bridge, Old Saybrook” and ​“Abstracted Reflections on Water.”

Which is better for the viewer?

You can undergo that exercise in the art-viewing experience with a visit to the Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville.

This Thursday through Sunday will be the last appearance of ​“Appearances and Apparitions,” an interesting double exhibition in which two photographers, Mark K. St. Mary and Alan Shulik, seem to genially square off, their abstract and not-so abstract compositions facing each other on opposing walls of the gallery.

St. Mary is committed to what he calls the ​“grace” of a completely abstracted image. You view it utterly out of the context of where he found it, whether it be an old door or a natural form.

Shulik is drawn to the same visual temptation, but just can’t give up on the recognizable pattern of landscape, like a patch of ground, or a dune in Death Valley, or a haunting ancient tree in Waterford, Conn. (pictured); he tells you that, in his titles.

Still, the show as a whole is not only more than agreeable; it’s a kind of seminar in how and why photographers choose the content they do. The photographers complement, and compliment, each other.

St. Mary has about a half-dozen large-sized color photographs in the show, some with dramatic oranges and even configurations that are arguably bullseyes and other representational forms. The majority of his images are in black and white, however, and those are more involving.

I think the reason is a variant on why he offers no titles.

“I name the pieces in such a way so as not to stand between the viewer and the work, allowing the viewer’s fantasy to shape his or her experience of the art work,” St. Mary states. ​“My sense is that color, like the words of a title, makes a directional statement that somehow we feel is absent from black and white.”

That explanation is typed on one of several small and rectangular white paper labels (pictured) humbly placed throughout the exhibition.

Another one: ​“Photography has become a way for me to be an abstract painter without paint.”

And this on a label at the entrance to the show: ​“From the very beginning I was attracted to framing of photos — how pictures of everyday things became almost abstract when framed with a lens and taken out of context.”

These labels, like little found messages floating on the sea of St. Mary’s abstract images, warm up the whole viewing experience of his work.

Across the floor, Shulik also shows some very abstract works, but no matter how abstract the images are, he names them. He said he captured ​“Abstracted Reflections on Water” by holding the shutter of his Leica open for several seconds as the tide came in. Then, in post-shooting, he changed a lot.

“I inverted the colors, so white became black and black white. I was going for a gritty, textual effect.” he said.

The whole effort was part of experimenting with his camera.

Shulik said he did a large body of work in years past of the human face and figure. He is by training a psychologist who had a long practice in New Haven. In these works, where sometimes a figure shows Janus-like two faces, you can see the influence of the other profession. In them all, he used old-fashioned cameras and films.

One gets the feeling that between the portraiture and the abstraction, where Shulik has landed with the most comfort is in the landscape. That subject, and especially in its stark forms, splits the difference.

He makes trips with camera and his dog Teddy to locations such as Death Valley, where he’s drawn to the sweeping dunes and the patterns on the ground. But it must be anchoring and recognizable as well.

“Death Valley is one of my favorite places in the world,” Shulik said. ​“So stark, when you get the right light. I feel something compelling about the texture of the place. It’s like walking on the moon.”

Kehler Liddell Gallery’s hours are Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The next exhibition features the work of long-time New Haven painter Frank Bruckmann in a show called ​“Breaking Bread.” He is paired with Marjorie Gillette Wolfe, whose work is gathered under the title ​“The Whole Wide World.” The show opens March 26 and runs through April 26, with an opening reception scheduled for Sunday, March 29, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.