In the back room of Olson-Larsen Galleries, I caught Steve Gerberich openly fondling some of John Beckelman's vases. I understood the mechanical sculptor's indiscretion because I had succumbed to the same temptation, although at least I made sure that no one was watching. Gerberich pleads helplessness.

"You can't not hold them; they demand it," he says. "Yes, it's a pity that a gallery setting restricts such instincts. I make them to be touched."

The Coe College professor tells me he is obsessed with "the elemental character of clay - in all its physical states." That's as basic as the creative instinct, but what differentiates Beckelman from other ceramic artists in Iowa is the same thing that makes his art so palpable. Namely, he goes to extremes to simulate relics: throwing his clay on a potter's wheel, manipulating it ferociously, and firing it at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit in a residual salt atmosphere. You could do pretty much the same thing by sitting under an erupting seaside volcano and then airing out for 1,000 years. He also told me he was working with clay painting, a process in which he applies unfired clay to canvas. Gallery owner Marlene Olson promised to let him bring some "the next time."

Appropriately, Beckelman's props from "The Last Days of Pompeii" share that back gallery with new paintings of Jan Zelfer-Redmond. Her work seems even more antiquarian, evoking Paleolithic cave paintings crossed with the bush paintings of the San tribesmen. The Sioux City abstract-expressionist blends rich sun colors, layers on textures and then scratches over them with primitive lines. She says these are used to suggest significance to the greater purpose of getting your attention. Her real message is our "need for spirituality and intuition." We'd rather consume our spirituality with more subtlety. But even churches are buying TV ads these days, so Zelfer-Redmond is probably on to something.

The star of this show is Sharon Booma. By most measures of public interest, the abstractionist is the star of the entire gallery. She is the first artist hot enough for Olson-Larsen to take out a full-page ad in "Art in America." And I sort of see why. Booma's canvasses are busy and detailed enough to never get boring, and her palette is versatile and pleasant enough to party with most interior decorators. She continues her trusty style, overlapping geometric shapes and layering on texture with rich colors and bits of handmade paper. Most of these new paintings are meant to be emotive. Even the titles are moody: "Some Kind of Solace," "Ride the Breeze," "Talk of Nothing Much."

In "An Afternoon Alone," the artist moves dramatically toward narrative by tossing a vague human shape amid a multiple series of glazed-over windows. Mud colors gobble up those that flirt so well with sunlight. A two painting series called "Stowed Away" also tempts us with conflicting moods and darker possibilities. Beckelman, Zelfer-Redmond and Booma's new works will be shown through Nov. 19.

Art News

Two Rivers Art Expo returns downtown, to a new home in Hy-Vee Hall, Nov. 12-13. Metro Arts Alliance's 18th annual fund raiser will include 150 artists, with juried awards in a dozen artistic media... Karolyn Sherwood Gallery debuts Karen Strohbeen and Bill Luchsinger's new holiday show on Nov. 17, with a new Strohbeen bird series and southwestern themes promised... Moberg Gallery's holiday show runs through Jan. 7, with an artists' reception Nov. 11. T.J. Moberg built a giant mechanical piece of found art that mixes decomposing food with microchips and several generations of electronic hardware. J.D. Griggs, E.J. Wickes, John Paul Davis, Frank Hansen, Shawn Wolter, Chris Vance and Alan Weinstein all show new paintings... 2AU is setting stones for their holiday show, with new takes on sliced emeralds and drusy black psilomene, a stunning black stone with quartz crystals that plays magic tricks with the old "lump of coal for Christmas" joke... St. John's Lutheran Church is showing work by inmates from the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women, through Dec. 1... Kristi Lund Lozier's paintings will be shown at Tandem Brick Gallery through Nov. 30. CV

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