The bad news is that the District's newest art space, the ARTScene Gallery is closing (at its present location) at the end of this show; the good news is that its last show is a brilliant one!

"Exploration Into Self Portraiture," curated by portrait-obsessed artist Jonathan Blum (who has been painting portraits exclusively from the nose up for the last 13 years), is a well balanced and interesting show which uses nearly every media to bring home a diverse number of artists' view of themselves. As such, the works range from the sublime to the mundane, as does the skill and creativity of the artists themselves.

Don't get me wrong; this is a superbly selected and well-hung show. The curator has done a brilliant job to reach every possible corner of the art of self-portraiture and via this process he not only answers our plebian demands to be awed, but also delivers unexpected surprises which baffle the viewer.

Of course there are several "artsy" entries (full of angst, and misery and victimism) which populate any group show in any space, such as Todd Burns' "Suicide," as well as technically brilliant pieces which cause envy, awe and admiration (and sometimes even hate), such as Natasha Mokina's astonishing oil self-portrait. This is the second Mokina self portrait I've seen in the last three months, and both times I have been paralyzed by the powerful strength of her neo-realist brush and by the cold beauty of her brooding Russian eyes.

There is also completely baffling work such as Sandy Sugar's entry as well generic portraiture such as the brilliant sculpture of Adam Bradley. His entry, "Grip", made of small found objects, is definitely my favorite sculpture so far this year. This young artist is talented and skilled, and I predict a superb future for him. "Grip" depicts a male figure with a broken forearm. The figure is made of tightly wound small found objects, amazing by their size and even more astounding as to how they are used by Bradley to deliver the illusion of a body part. Keep an eye on this new artist; he is going places.

Eroticism and sensuality always crops up where the human figure is the subject, and this show is no exception. In fact, my favorite photograph in the show was a sexually charged photo assembly by Annapolis artist Tatiana Hudson. In her small, intimate entry, she assembles four images of her face, which starting at the left introduces the viewer to the photographer's composed face. Her pretty, clear eyes dominate the landscape of her composed face, and as her piece travels right, her eyes close, her facial expression changes, the photographic treatments and film used also change and her hair dances as she finally delivers a powerful erotic punch and makes us a voyeur into a very private moment.

Jamie Wimberly is not so subtle, but certainly just as successful! His work, which borrows Tina Modotti's photograph (the one in which she is laying nude on the roof of her house in Mexico City) depicts a slightly leering artist in the background, obviously in a sexual mental haiku with the model (alright, alright, there is some haiku in English on the painting itself). Picasso once said that a "woman gets naked in front of her lover and nude in front of an artist." Of course, the horny Spaniard would then try to nail nearly every female model that posed for him! Wimberly's work explores successfully the moist edge of the platonic-nearly-sensual relationship that always borders the artist-model relationship.

Finally, as there were lots of children around for the opening reception, I asked one of them to show me his favorite piece in the show. Callum took me to Eric Sandberg's "Wait", in which the artist depicts himself as Glaucus.

In the piece, Sandberg is squatting in front of a stream and appears to be spreading his buttocks. In mythology, Glaucus was a fisherman. One day, the fish that he had captured and spread on the grass began to revive and move their fins as if they were in water; and while he looked on astonished, they wiggled off to the water, plunged in, and swam away. Baffled, he examined the grass upon which the fish had lain and exclaimed, "What herb has such power?" and ate some. He soon found himself agitated with a longing desire for water and unable to restrain himself, plunged into the stream. The water gods received him graciously, and eventually Glaucus found himself changed; his hair was sea green and he was endowed with the gift of prophecy.

Sandberg is obviously a skilled painter and the piece was eye-catching due to its graphic nature; Callum loved the story behind it!

ARTScene is located in the National Press Building, which is at the corner of 14th and F Streets, NW in Washington. The show runs until December 23, 1997, at which time the gallery will close. Its directors, Craig Ekedahl and Blum are looking for a new space to re-open the gallery somewhere else in the city. Ekedahl can be reached at (301)320-5341 and Blum at (202)543-0306.