Purchasing art can be one of the more exhilarating yet intimidating things we do. Many of us find ourselves putting one foot in the proverbial gallery door, only to turn away overwhelmed by a feeling of insecurity and ineptness. It’s a funny notion, because when you acquire a painting, drawing or sculpture that you adore, it usually becomes one of your most priceless and satisfying purchases. Yet, the process can be a rocky road for many. Art is expensive and its value somewhat elusive. Your taste in art changes and evolves — the once lovely still life may pale in comparison to a contemporary painting. Yet, once you find an artist and work you covet, it’s pretty close to nirvana.

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According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of the word “geometry” is as follows: mathematics concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids, and higher dimensional analogs. Replace “mathematics” with “art,” and you have the description of Nashville-based artist Kit Reuther’s new exhibition “Weights and Modules,” on view at David Lusk Gallery in Nashville through October 8. “Weights and Modules” comprises two- and three-dimensional works whose assortment fulfills the title’s promise.

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"I Will Have to Tell You Everything," says the title of Hamlett Dobbins' exhibition of recent work at David Lusk Gallery, and the artist proceeds to do so in a group of splashy, dynamic, inventive and downright gorgeous abstract paintings. These 13 pieces radiate a kind of divine energy of creativity, imagination and wit as they peer into realms both microscopic and cosmic in depth and breadth. The show will be on display through Oct. 8.

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Carroll Cloar remains one of the most beloved and widely recognized artists of the South, even after his death in 1993. Born in 1913, reared near Earle, Arkansas, and a resident of Memphis for most of his life, Cloar drew on memories of his rural childhood and the tales and customs of country and small-town folks to create paintings whose realism was tempered with touches of whimsy, folklore and mystery. He often started a piece with an old photograph that he would transpose into something akin to dream and fable. More than 20 years after his death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the artist's work is highly collectible.

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When it comes to painting, twin brothers Jerry and Terry Lynn are perfectly in sync. Both boasting artistic accolades and stylistic mastery, they bring their individual and collaborative work to the forefront in a provocative exhibition at Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery through September 16.

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Two exhibitions on view now at local galleries take different approaches to issues of domesticity and the American predilection for putting our faith in goods and objects. Haynes Riley's installation, "An Attitude You Can Wear," through Aug. 13 at Tops Gallery, and Tim Crowder's "Accumulator," through July 30 at David Lusk Gallery, each reveal a light touch, though Riley comes on with, indeed, more attitude, while Crowder accumulates a range of sentiments derived from memory and nostalgia. Each delivers in its own way an indictment of and acquiescence to the inevitable ministrations of time.

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Forty years ago, William Eggleston exploded onto the art world. In spring 1976, as a relatively unknown photographer from Memphis, Eggleston was given a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit's catalog described Eggleston's revolutionary color images — sumptuous snapshots of commonplace life and objects — as "perfect." "Perfectly banal ... perfectly boring, certainly," came the riposte from sneering critics of the day.

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As the American population ages, lifelong learning is gathering more significance. Lifelong learning assumes many forms. To some, it could mean learning skills to start a new career. To others it could be learning a new or better way to do the job they have had for years. Others learn for sheer pleasure.

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Rob Matthews is painting again. An artist who once convinced himself that if work is fun, then it’s not work appears to have found himself in a work-related situation that is, in fact, fun. Unveiled back in April at David Lusk Gallery with the show Dawn-Watchers Watch for the Dawn, his new style I would argue is not altogether unrelated in process and aesthetics, but a fraternal twin, so to speak, to his once-signature painstakingly intricate graphite-on-paper drawings. Born from the same imagination yet inherently divergent, they cannot exist independently.

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