Last Chance

Catch It or Regret It

by Lydia Navatsyk

Carina Romano's portrait photography play off her first impressions of people. She spots their tendencies to appear goofy, dignified, dramatic or pensive and stages a setting to match their mood. Sometimes, she toys with iconic images: Her 1950s housewife is sitting pretty with barbecue sauce smeared all over her lips. Each character seems to belong in the bizarre settings — whether that's standing next to a dollhouse in a plowed field or wearing a shark fin in a kiddie pool.

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A history of Will Stokes Jr.'s career reads something like the history of the Fabric Workshop itself — the self-taught artist has maintained a studio there since its opening in 1977. This retrospective features more than 100 works, plus a re-creation of his original studio space. Stokes' early drawings (pictured) translate fluidly to silkscreen; he multiplies his colorful forms to create vibrant, junglelike landscapes where fanciful creatures and human nudes dwell in harmony.

Michael Goldberg joined the abstract expressionist (think figureless yet full of emotion) movement in the 1940s, but his recent works still bubble with the spontaneity of a 6-year-old. Goldberg disrupts his scribbles, grids and blots of black paint with bursts of color that shift impulsively in all directions; his thin streaks look like streetlights dragging across smoky, smudged paper.