By Jessica Dawson
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, May 19, 2005

· A gangsta altarpiece? Maybe. Kehinde Wiley's massive paintings depict hunky African American men in poses that Madonna and St. John the Baptist usually assume. Backgrounds are painted in vaguely baroque or rococo patterns, the palette is white Champion jerseys against baby pink and blue environments; the fellas' rich chocolate skin is the darkest hue going. Called "White," the show isn't as fraught with racial issues as its title suggests: The pictures themselves say Black Triumphant. I could quibble over a shortcoming or two -- namely, some confused throws of reflected light that don't make spatial sense. But who cares when you're standing in front of this much style and bravado?

"Kehinde Wiley: White" at Conner Contemporary Art, 1730 Connecticut Ave. NW, Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-6 p.m., 202-588-8750, to June 11.

· String theory meets craft class in Rebecca Kamen's abstract sculptures in McLean. The veteran Northern Virginia Community College professor weaves thin steel wires into eccentric orbits punctuated by knots that connote low-tech science class models or handmade jewelry sized for Gargantua. Sometimes she wraps those wires around or through sheets or boxes made with warped and curled Mylar. Her neatest trick is nearly convincing us that plastic painted in rust and gray acrylic might be metal. If only the rest of her show were as persuasive.

"Rebecca Kamen: Meta" at the Emerson Gallery, McLean Project for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday 1-5 p.m., 703-790-1953, to June 4.

· Tim Tate, the glass artist and curator of "Compelled by Content: Contemporary Glass," wanted to make a glass show that was more like a sculpture show than a craft fair. It was a tough order: Glass en masse has something of a reputation. Some successes: Marc Petrovic's charming birds nestled inside wooden boxes, despite their overwhelming debt to artist Joseph Cornell, and Tate's own enigmatic orbs. But pieces like Diane Cooper Cabe's "Tell Me Your Story . . . ," with its cast glass clutches and coin purses, come off more gee-whiz than fine art.

"Compelled by Content: Contemporary Glass" at Fraser Gallery, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, Tuesday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m., 301-718-9651, to June 5.

· Wacky conceptual art duo Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin are still at it. Taking Gerlovina as their subject, these oddball, symbol-rich images evoke alchemy, seances and hair shirts. The formula for each photo is the same: the vaguely Byzantine Gerlovina, with her long, plaited hair, kabuki-pale skin and round eyes staring blankly into the middle distance; a faint image made up of white dots is superimposed. She's posed to interact with whatever image is drawn on top of her, whether it's an egg, a vial or a big book. The technique underscores discrepancies between the real and the imagined, yet the results are too often hokey. The couple are shown alongside the stark prints of Oleg Kudryashov.

Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin at Robert Brown Gallery, 2030 R St. NW, Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m., 202-483-4383, to June 11.

· We'll always have Paris. Willy Ronis's black-and-white photos of the City of Light are the visual equivalent of Bogey's line: cliched, sure, but charming all the same. Ronis's pictures date from the 1940s and '50s, when this lesser-known colleague of Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson was shooting misty mansard roofs and smooching couples. His pictures won't spoil our fantasy -- and who wants to blow it? -- that the city remains immune to passing time and Metro strikes. Also on view: late-19th-century vintage prints of the city's major landmarks and Lynn Saville's recent night scenes shot with extended exposures that make for eerie, saturated colors.

"Willy Ronis: Reflections of France" at Kathleen Ewing Gallery, 1609 Connecticut Ave. NW, Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m., 202-328-0955, to May 28.

· The temperature just climbed inside Creative Partners Gallery, where Prince George's County resident Elisabeth Lescault shows her shiny, sexy pottery. Though her palette includes greens and matte white and brown, vases and bottles in wet-looking shades of red -- tomato, burgundy, Corvette -- vie for our attention. Lescault has been working in clay for more than 30 years, and her mastery of form is clear -- her voluptuous shapes curve in all the right places, and her sophisticated glazing makes for gorgeous, slick surfaces.

Elisabeth Lescault at Creative Partners Gallery, 4600 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m., 301-951-9441, to May 28.