Allied powers

Kick off 2007 by checking out the estrogen-fueled art at the Asylum Gallery. On Saturday, Asylum will open a show by 11 members of the Northern California-based Alliance of Women Artists with a reception from 4 to 9 p.m.

It’s easy to see how these mostly Bay Area artists have made their mark not only nationally, but also globally. Keven Ann Seaver’s photographs spotlight simple industrial props, juxtaposing shape and color to focus on a harmonious abstraction, as in “Cohabitation.” Light makes the play in “Red Eye,” emanating from a glowing red sphere. Thin indigo fingers of graduated rectangles are silhouetted on the red orb, shrinking and fading as they retreat into the darkness, away from the power of the light. Seaver’s got you—guiding your eyes, working your mind and piquing your curiosity.

Jane B. Grimm, a jewelry designer whose work has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, makes her mark in this show with the most humble of mediums: clay. In “Anemone VI,” Grimm lines up small soft-shaped, amorphic birds in rows 11 across and 11 down. The fowl, glazed in a luminous wheat-colored hue, directed their attention on the centerpiece, a simple round egg shape. Like drones surrounding the queen bee, those closer to the queen egg take on a rosier glow, like they’re sucking power from it or keeping it warm. You decide.

Jaleh Etemad’s mixed media “After My Own Heart” spins with energy, spiraling patterns rhythmically through multiple layers of rich color that retain depth without falling into murkiness.

You really need to catch this show and you’ve got time. It’s up through next month’s Second Saturday on February 10. The Asylum Gallery is located inside the Headquarters for the Arts at 1719 25th Street. For more information call (916) 804-6095.