Geography is a major consideration in "Art HoCo 2009," because its 49 works are by 44 Howard County artists. Their subject matter ranges geographically and in other ways, however, as you'll immediately see in this exhibit at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City.

The exhibit's juror is Amanda Burnham, assistant professor and area coordinator of Foundations at Towson University. She has selected a diverse assortment of paintings, photographs, watercolors, prints, collage, drawings, stained glass, pottery and sculpture.

It would be nice if the show also included at least a few examples of mixed medium, installation-oriented and otherwise form-testing artwork, but what's here certainly is worth a look.

One of the most pleasing stretches of gallery wall is devoted to several works that make for agreeable neighbors. Mark Coates' oil paintings "Lee Street, Frostburg" and "Sykesville Parking II" are smartly conceived depictions of small towns that have retained a rural quality.

The closely spaced wood frame houses give a sense of long-established neighborhoods that are literally cohesive. The houses' basic architectural shapes provide painterly opportunities for blocks of color.

The trucks parked on a hill in "Sykesville Parking II" prompt one to hope they have reliable emergency brakes. One also realizes that these trucks and the nearby houses convey a feeling for small town life in a painting that's otherwise unpeopled.

There aren't even any cars in Jaye Ayers' oil painting "No Parking." This tightly cropped image is visually anchored by two orange traffic cones sitting on a residential street.

The purple-hued street may suggest an early evening mood, but the paint application and the overall painterly conception make the painting seem like a slightly abstracted color study. Even the sidewalk and green lawn in the background have a spare and somewhat dreamy quality discouraging you from thinking about a specific street address.

Also sharing this stretch of gallery wall is Marcia Palmer's oil painting "Annapolis Window." All of the pictorial space is given over to the grayish green-painted side of an old wood house.

At the center of this exterior wall is a black shutter-flanked window that shows with near-photographic precision the full reflection of the facing two-story brick house. It's literally a reflection of how closely people live in Annapolis' historic district.

Reflections also factor into Bruce Blum's color photograph "View from the Aquarium Bridge." This depiction of a bridge between buildings at the National Aquarium in Baltimore calls your attention to the bridge's assertive red and white metal structural components.

Blum's photo, which won an Honorable Mention from the juror, is shot at such an angle that you directly see other buildings, such as the World Trade Center, and also see slightly disorienting reflections of other harbor sites.

Among other prize winners in the show is Patrick Dillon's oil painting "American Circus," which earned an Honorable Mention. The obscured faces and other smudged details of this group scene make it difficult to confidently identify what appear to be confrontational participants in a Jerry Springer-style TV show.

And another Honorable Mention went to Doreen Starling's oil painting "My Family," in which a small girl and her two parents pose on a sofa. The family's wardrobe, their eager-to-please pose, and the painting's warm mix of pink and orange make this resemble a photograph you would find in a 1970s-era photo album.

Earning the Best in Show prize is Carrie Hill's oil painting on masonite "Cracks in the Foundation," whose gilt frame ironically places it in the fine-art tradition. This humorous painting depicts the back of a man seated on a bench in what appears to be an art museum. The top half of the museum has been ripped off by unknown forces. Likewise, the sculptures and other art are presented in a fragmentary manner.

Like the classic surrealism of the 1920s and 1930s, "Cracks in the Foundation" uses precisely rendered figuration for enigmatic ends. You're free to speculate about a more exact meaning, but it's safe to say that the busted apart classical architecure and shattered art collection don't bode well for the stodgy academy. It's amusing that the top prize goes to a painting depicting the destruction of art. Talk about new art out of old ...

"Art HoCo 2009" runs through Dec. 11 in Gallery I at the Howard County Center for the Arts, at 8510 High Ridge Road, in Ellicott City. Running concurrently in Gallery II is "Time and Shuttles Fly ...," a 60th anniversary exhibit by the Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore. Call 410-313-2787 or go to www.hocoarts.org.

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