It’s getting dark

Driving through Roseville usually doesn’t give one the sense of a dark, old world. The strip malls and fresh pavement don’t conjure up history. But painter Myron Stephens, whose works are on display this month at the Solomon Dubnick Gallery, uses the surroundings of his home as a backdrop for moody and mythical images that read like the seemingly dry stuff found in dusty old art-history books. Such titles as “Pandora’s Dream” and “Call of the Sirens” evoke the old Baroque style of art making, where any given image served as a metaphor for something else. But try as Stephens may to create images with a strong historical slant, these paintings still come off as fresh and new. And although these new paintings are entirely different from his last show, there is still an underlying style that is all his own. The gallery is at 2131 Northrop Avenue, and the show runs through June 7.