Sue Johnson, Bringing Fresh Ideas to the Table

Johnson's most appetizing ideas inhabit three dimensions, where her success rests on the precision of their balance. Her nostalgic evocations of diners, childhood commercials and '50s-era optimism risk miring us in treacle. But Johnson's wicked sense of humor and her sharp use of materials deliver the works from excess.

The Doughboy's charm may grab our attention, but it's Johnson's smarts that give us food for thought.

Teresita Fern¿ndez At Reynolds Gallery

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Reynolds Gallery -- probably Richmond's toniest art dealership, which boasts a roster of artists I wish Washington galleries would show -- owner Bev Reynolds hosts the cerebral, formalist work of New York City-based artist Teresita Fern¿ndez. Reynolds invited Fern¿ndez because of the artist's links to Richmond; she's a 1992 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's top-flight MFA program in sculpture. Fern¿ndez now shows at Chelsea's Lehmann Maupin and received a MacArthur "genius" grant three years ago.

Like sculptor Tara Donovan, another VCU grad who has done well, Fern¿ndez stresses formal and intellectual concerns using simple materials.

The show's guiding image is the elongated rectangle of the movie screen. Most pieces here include the form, whether in delicate drawings or abstract wall-hung works. Each time it appears, it arrives with a different set of connotations, serving both as the show's ballast and its source of variation.

The 8 1/2 -foot-wide wall piece "Projection Screen (Black Onyx)" plays with perception in a manner reminiscent of light artist James Turrell. From afar we see a hovering rectangle. Up close the work dissolves into a series of onyx discs attached to the wall. As we move around the gallery, we become aware of our perception changing as we move in relation to the art.

Elsewhere in the show hang a series of ink and graphite drawings on Mylar that take the shape of tiny movie screens. Mounted in large white frames, the images hover unmoored like flickering hallucinations. Another series finds the screen shape on wall-hung marble slabs that glow like the movie screen photographs of Hiroshi Sugimoto (seen at the Hirshhorn two years ago). The form is nostalgic, but the material recalls ancient statuary, suggesting that the screens are relics, too.

Sue Johnson at the Lora Robins Gallery of Design From Nature, University of Richmond Museums, Richmond Way at Boatwright Library, Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 1-5 p.m., 804-289-8276 to June 15;

http://museums.richmond.edu.

Teresita Fern¿ndez at Reynolds Gallery, 1514 Main St., Richmond, Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., 804-355-6553, to March 1;

http://www.reynoldsgallery.com.