Into the Woods New direction in art and in the direction of the suburbs. by DAVID HALL hen going to look at art exhibits, one never knows what kind of surprises are in store -- if any. This time out, I was intrigued by the new direction of an artist who has long cultivated a following here, and I was disappointed by the enterprise of a couple of upstarts who are young enough to learn, one hopes, from their mistakes. Jay Etkin of Cooper Street Gallery has been handling Dutch artist Rob van der Schoor's paintings for more than seven years. The artist is best known for taking a reproduction of an Old (Dutch) Master painting and pasting it onto a larger canvas, on top of which he paints an extrapolation of its perspective and/or subject matter. In many cases, one had to look closely to find the appropriated portion of the picture; the masterwork became a defining element of a larger vehicle for van der Schoor's surrealistic fantasies. In his new body of work, titled "Wood Be Trees," van der Schoor has left the Old Masters behind. You enter the gallery and are greeted by 53 acrylic-on-canvas paintings that playfully use tree imagery to explore various puns and allegories about wood. The ground of each canvas is painted in a single base color, then given a trompe l'oeil wood-grain texture to simulate a painting support of board. Upon this ground, van der Schoor paints in a style much leaner than in work he's previously exhibited. For the most part, no attempt is made at naturalism, the artist's representations are rendered in cartoon fashion. That said, the graphic quality is not overemphasized as the artist has maintained a fluidity and loose painterliness with regard to the mark-making. One refreshing aspect of these works is the total lack of pretentious heaviness -- the artist seems delighted just to deal with his subject matter in a whimsical way. One picture, for example, Smoke, is painted on a fire-engine red ground and depicts the trunk of a tree as a red-brick cylindrical furnace; it stands amid logs seemingly lopped from the limbs above, which have become smokestacks. All manner of interpretations can be derived from the imagery of the tree consuming itself as fuel, or it can be simply enjoyed as a visual pun. In other pictures, van der Schoor fuses tree themes with images of knots, nests, log cabins, wooden furniture, and the like. The artist painted this series while living in Brooklyn, and the painting Jump depicts a jumble of New York skyscrapers as rough-hewn lumber and wood-grained dowels. Another picture that deals with the artist's New York residency -- and an anomaly among the other 52 paintings exhibited -- is Babel 2. Without any of the characteristic wood or tree imagery, it depicts Manhattan Island as seen from Brooklyn and painted more naturalistically, is with muted tones in the style of the Old Masters. It is a very fine painting, but I couldn't resolve why, in its paint handling and subject matter, it was included in this offering. "Wood Be Trees" through July 8th at Cooper Street Gallery (272-7053). Last week, twins Jerry and Terry Lynn opened "Southern Reflections," an exhibit of their new work, as well as paintings and drawings by Danny Broadway and Morreco Coleman. The location: their gallery/studio/home in Arlington. The Lynns' "Southern Reflection" collaborations are characteristic of their "MAX: 99" work: regional subject matter rendered with a cubist fragmentation that emphasizes the flow and texture of the compositions as much as it does their narrative. The artists employ the palette knife quite nicely to create patterned, impasto surfaces, but they should be wary of its overuse. When this or any other device is perfected to the point of stylization, the work risks becoming a parody of itself, lost in banal repetition. It's one reason why many dismiss work like the Lynns' as purely decorative "kitsch." Another reason is the representation of regional themes that have become somewhat cliché, liked the twins' depiction of blues musicians. I am not saying that vital work cannot be realized using these themes, but it is unlikely. While on my way to the "gallery," driving through the Arlington suburb, I kept looking for an upcoming commercial zone, not knowing that this exhibit was housed in the twin Lynns' den. The artists are to be commended for their initiative and D.I.Y. attitude and for dedicating so much of their home to displaying artworks (very nicely, I might add). But ultimately, converting a part of a home in the suburbs into an art gallery in order to feature the work of its residents is just too unseemly to be legitimized. Had I known this was the case, in all likelihood, I would not have made the trip. n "Southern Reflections," through July 18th at Twins Inc. (381-0998).