Silvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery presents a two-person exhibition, "Peter Arakawa and Rita Herzfeld, featuring an artistic couple residing in Edison, New Jersey, both of whom have professional careers spanning about 30 years. Both artists have art degrees from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey- Arakawa with a BA in 1982 and an MFA in 1984, Herzfeld with a BA in 1980. Herzfeld also attended the Art Students League in New York. The full exhibition Including more than 50 works, ranges from early to recent work and offers examples of several thematic and technical variations within each artist's oeuvre. While generally embracing abstract modes, both artists have at times employed realistic or semi-realistic imagery to varying degrees as particular concepts or motifs came to the fore.

Peter Arakawa's art has always been inventive. changeable, even chimerical. Depending on his current interest, his work may veer from pure abstraction to intricate imagery, from simplicity and fluidity to complexity and expressionism, from philosophical musings to impish humor. This versatility is often seen within single works that seamlessly combine apparently dichotomous pairings, such on gouaches paper that include gestural splatters, quasi-geometric elements, and aspects of plants and other natural forms. One series juxtaposes multicolored swirls and blobs of pigment with crisply formed blocks of calligraphic text. In keeping with the artist's originality, the calligraphy generally comprises wholly invented alphabets. Whatever the approach, all these modes are rendered with great sensitivity and highly proficient technical skills. Collage is frequently a factor in his compositions, ranging from layering of paper scraps to the addition of metallic wire, small objects, and scrupulously fitted paper insets. Also included in Arakawa's display are several assemblages that exemplify the artist's exploratory side, as well as an engagingly eccentric wit.

Rita Herzfeld's art bespeaks a searching, wandering quality that is expressed through meandering brushstrokes, organic and amorphous shapes, and a suggestion of floating or drifting forms. Her linear motifs, while often languorous and sensual, can also evoke movement and even frenetic activity, in works including small dispersed spots and strokes, a vitalized rhythm can be perceived the viewer's eye skips from point to point, from color to color. The largest work the exhibition is by Herzfeld, a 52-by-68-inch acrylic on canvas entitled "Adrift," in which irregularly ovoid or amebic shapes levitate within, of waft across, a dark background punctuated by enlivening color patches and squiggling lines. Of particular Interest in Herzfeld's presentation is a group of acrylic monoprints that take great advantage of the spontaneity and textural potential of this transfer medium. Rich in texture and often lush in color effects, these works are redolent of natural phenomenon whose essence has been captured or suggested through pads, strokes and swirls of pigment, with optical effects that are enhanced by the side-by-side placement of intense hues