The eclectic nature of the contemporary art world is reflected in the group exhibit "Art MD 2008" at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City. You'll see different media, methods and messages as you walk from one piece to the next.

To the extent that a single piece can be said to epitomize the entire show, one could make a case for Sarah Wegner's sculpture "Industrial Venus." This headless and armless woman obviously bears a close resemblance to the Venus de Milo, but the differences between them are just as obvious. Rather than carving in marble, Wegner works in metal. The sculpture's upper body is made of steel so rusty that it has a number of small holes in it; the drapery-clad lower body is made of more smoothly shaped and shimmering stainless steel.

Artists often look to the past for inspiration, but in this case Wegner actually takes an ancient sculptural form and imagines it as an industrial relic from a more modern age. Although the other artists in this exhibit aren't nearly as blunt about having an art history-mining strategy, they're creatively grappling with ways to keep art looking fresh in the 21st century.

Realists are better represented than abstractionists in this large group exhibit jurored by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, the graduate dean emeritus at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she is director of the Center for Race and Culture.

The first work you'll encounter in the show is Marcia Palmer's oil painting "Charleston Window." It's a tightly cropped view of a brick wall that has an old window in the center. Despite the presence of a flower box at the base of the window, this is an austere picture that calls your attention to the detailed depiction of bricks and mortar. It seems significant that this window's inside shutters are closed, denying viewers the sort of peek that's typically expected in such realistic paintings.

Other realists include James Adkins, with the oil portrait "Valentine." The nearly nude female is clad only in a red cloth draped across her lower arms. She's also wearing a small locket containing a red stone that complements the cloth.

Although there is some closely observed realism in the exhibit, there are other painters who favor more atmospheric or symbolic approaches. Roxana Sinex's oil painting "Snowing at the Old Mill" depicts a red brick building next to a stream. Not only does thick snow cover the surrounding trees, but falling snow also dominates every bit of this winter scene.

It's emotionally apt that "Snowing at the Old Mill" hangs next to a digital color photograph, David Pumplin's "Foggy Morning, Centennial Lake." A few brown reeds aside, this view of shoreline rocks and the lake beyond them is a gray-white blur owing to the dense fog.

Providing social commentary on our world is Bruce Blum. His color photograph "Growing Houses and Trees for Houses" and black-and-white photo "Farmland and the American Dream" are joltingly straightforward presentations of what happens when so-called McMansions are constructed on rural land.

Moving away from the world as seen with varying degrees of realistic clarity to the world as seen in the imagination are works including Joan Bevelaqua's oil painting "Bright Lightning." It depicts a dress on a hanger that's floating against an abstracted blue-gray sky. You've got to contemplate any dress that so dominates its environment.

Venturing into complete abstraction are works including Stan Wenocur's mixed-media painting "Moon Night." Deploying cement, fabric, oil paint and pastel, he gives a sense of what it's like for moonlight to fall across what appears to be a wave-tossed sea. You can interpret it as a nocturnal ocean scene, but it also succeeds as a darkly moody abstract composition.

Among the many other artists in the show, check out Laurie Flannery's black-and-white photo "Albert, with twig bundle"; Marcia Wolfson Ray's fern- and fennel-woven natural sculpture "Resist"; Aline Feldman's white-line woodcut "Midtown", and Nancy Linden's video animation "Once It Was This."

"Art MD 2008" runs through Dec. 12 at the Howard County Center for the Arts, at 8510 High Ridge Road in Ellicott City. There is a reception Dec. 5, 6 to 9 p.m.; it includes juror remarks, Resident Artists Open Studios, and the annual open house and holiday sale. Call 410-313-2787 or go to www.hocoarts.org.

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