As a mixed media artist who has long combined acrylic paint with a wide variety of collaged elements, Alison Wells knows all about layering, and the way in which complex visual depths can be achieved.

With “In the Neighborhood,” her current exhibition in the Braitmayer Gallery at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, she utilizes her skill as a collagist — and her perception as a keenly sensitive observer of the human condition — to reveal layers and depths of other kinds. Historical, social, political, emotional and spiritual layers simmer below the surfaces.