The deft juxtaposition of soft-edged color and hard-edged form links the artists in Hemphill Fine Art’s “Kainen, Scully, Nozkowski.” A jagged white line runs through the mottled blue-green of Jacob Kainen’s “Portent II.” Textured metallic hues are contained within broad stripes in Scully’s “Wait.” A grid of black diamonds contrasts with a heathered green field in Nozkowski’s “Untitled (P-26).”
Kainen, who died in 2001, was a mainstay of the D.C. art scene for decades. He and Scully, an Irish-born American, are represented in this show by prints. The pieces by Nozkowski, a New Yorker, are mostly oils on paper or board. The various formats don’t look very different here. All three men strike a similar balance between the structured and the impromptu, and produce rich hues whether using a brush or a press. Nozkowski’s paintings might offer the most dynamic color contrasts, but the most immersive piece is “Ahab,” a Kainen monotype whose blue-black center appears as infinite as a night sky.