David Dworanczyk

Through Sept. 21, Mew Gallery, 906 Christian St.

by John Vettese

gallery/photography

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Subtlety and nuance are David Dworanczyk's specialties. When drumming in area bands Rarebirds and DayMaker, he's adept at using brush sticks and congas to craft gentle, rhythmic phrasings that echo, not overtake, the theme of a song. Pay attention solely to what he's playing, though, and it can be mesmerizing. The collection of Dworanczyk's photography on display at the Mew Gallery is the exact visual art you'd expect to come from this sort of mind-set. About 15 works, all done in a crisp, punchy liquid-emulsion-on-canvas process, seem simple and unarresting at first. The smaller photo of a dingy bathroom stall and the larger canvases of window frames are skillfully rendered, but appear to be nothing more until you step back and take in the body as a whole. Dworanczyk's strength is a witty juxtaposition of shapes within images and between images. The shiny chrome curvature of a Hohner harmonica neatly mirrors the crumbling curvature of "U on the Wall." A board rests on a tree at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge, and the triangle created seems to continue the span. At the base of oceanic cliffs, a beach hut sits alongside two boulders; Dworanczyk's angle on the scene lines the three up in a row, with the hut's windblown state making it appear equal to the rocks in size and texture. The weakest images in the series (a large white dog, chairs lining a front yard) are those that fail to connect in this manner. However, his use of common, unstaged scenes — such as the curves of work-boot toes, its buckles and a pile of bolts, collected in a tidy symmetry — lends universality to the work, making the discovery of repeated shapes and scenes in one's own world an exciting prospect.

Through Sept. 21, Mew Gallery, 906 Christian St., 215-625-2424, www.mewgallery.org.