An abstract artist attempts to reflect the issues of a “Divided” country in one of three new shows at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker. The artist is Janice Mathews-Gordon, whose acrylics are on view with mixed media paintings by Carlos Tello.

Animals seem to both inhabit and come out of clouds, waves, objects or merely swirls of graphite, in the large drawings of Haley Prestifilippo.

Prestifilippo has a show of her “Powdered Graphite” drawings, with an exhibit by Douglas Shaw Elder, at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.

“Past, Present and Future” is the title of a show that looks back, as well as to the here and now, and future, in work by well-known and emerging artists.

Small “Objects of Desire” are made larger, and materials are used in novel ways to challenge our imaginations, in three new exhibits. The three “Memories Explored” shows by Jose Rodriguez, Beatriz Mayorca and David Phelps are at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.

There is a nice contrast between the more downbeat film noirish oils of George Oswalt and the “decidedly positive” acrylics of Elizabeth Hahn. Their paintings and photos by G. L. August Loessberg are on view in a show by the three “longtime friends” at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.

Visitors have a superb choice between jazzy abstractions, primitive landscapes, and organic yet functional vessels, in a 3-person exhibit at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.

“Each civilization has a different way of looking at the human body,” and this also applies to many of the artists in a new show. More than 30 artists are showing in the “Art of the Nude” exhibit through July 30 at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.

Works by three artists in the “Best of the West 2017” show are almost heroic, while still life oils by the fourth are magically realistic. The exhibit by Paul Moore, Mike Larsen, Allen Birnbach and James Andrew Smith is at JRB Art at The Elms gallery, 2810 N Walker.

Layers cover up elements in the mostly abstract acrylics of Beth Hammack and photographed collages of Andy Mattern. Hammack and Mattern are exhibiting work at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker, along with three landscape artists.

JRB Art at The Elms welcomes figurative painters Sara and Shane Scribner's show, “Reverie!” and never before seen etchings from the estate of D.J. Lafon. The exhibitions open with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. April 7 during Paseo's First Friday Gallery Walk, and run through April 30.