Founded in 1995, Les Yeux du Monde is a contemporary art gallery located in Charlottesville. The gallery maintains the highest standards, representing both established and emergent artists from the Central Virginia region and beyond. This season, from June 23–August 13, the gallery welcomes not one, but two remarkable exhibits into their gallery space. The opening reception is this Friday from 5–7:30 p.m.

Cate West Zahl, “Flatscape III,” 2017; oil, charcoal, and pastel on wood panel; 36″ x 36″

Summer Perspectives:  Isabelle Abbot with Sarah Boyts Yoder and Cate West Zahl comes to the front gallery. The exhibition displays new paintings by Isabelle Abbot, who has exhibited with the gallery for five years, and introduces the exciting paintings of abstract artists Sarah Boyts Yoder and Cate West Zahl. Abbot, one the Piedmont’s most well-known and loved landscape painters charts new territory for this show. While still deriving her inspiration from nature, in this case from the beautiful blooming peach orchards in spring, she is also abstracting her inspiration to more explore organic essences.  Her work plays off the abstractions of Yoder and Zahl, each of whom has their own contrasting but complementary painterly perspectives. The paintings of Yoder are bold, curvilinear, and reminiscent of the expressive bulbous colorful art of Philip Guston, while Zahl abstracts from her study of life with more linear and angular compositions that bring to mind the powerful art of Richard Diebenkorn. The resulting paintings of all three artists are dazzling and uniquely their own.

Isabelle Abbot, “Then the Orchards Bloomed,” 2017; oil on canvas, 54″ x 48″

More Light: Paintings by Karen Blair, Ana Rendich, Krista Townsend hangs new works by Karen Blair—a renowned painter of    who is equally adept at painting still life, landscape, and portrait—which are semi-abstractions rooted in garden and nature scenes.  Ana Rendich, originally from Argentina, will show her hot-colored abstractions from two recent series—one that is reminiscent of Paul Klee and brings to mind geometric, colorful dwellings and the other more freely painted series that has a musical harmony similar to the early abstract paintings of Vasily Kandinsky.  Krista Townsend’s richly textured paintings of nature and cityscapes are grounded in her quest to explore and build bridges between the land and our place within it. Each of these extremely talented artists will bring their unique and complementary visions to play in this light-filled summer sampling.

Krista Townsend, “Lichen On Rocks,” 2017; oil on canvas, 36″ x 36″

Les Yeux du Monde is open 1–5 p.m., Thursday–Sunday, and by appointment.  Call 434-882-2620, email LYdMGallery@gmail.com or visit www.lesyeuxdumonde.com for more information. The gallery is located at 841 Wolf Trap Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22911.