As a reviewer, it is a pleasure to discover more in an artist’s body of work, the more closely one looks. I often have to own my subconscious prejudices as I respond to the range of creative and critical impulses that shape contemporary art. Skimming Lori Mehta’s modernist realist paintings on her website, I had to confront my initial skepticism. Her color sense was unusual, but was she anything beyond a gifted painter of New England beach scenes?

A week later, chatting with the artist in her garage studio, I happily discovered that there was much that I had missed.