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Painter John McLaughlin created a body of work that has brought him more recognition among fellow artists and critics than among the public. Two current shows, a small retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art and a complementary show at the C. Grimaldis Gallery, offer a good opportunity to experience his art.He was born in Boston in 1898, but did not embark upon the mature paintings that constitute his artistic legacy until he was almost 50 and living...

The announcement this week that the BAUhouse must vacate its present space was sad news. I know little about the performance aspect of its activities, but as an art gallery the BAUhouse has been consistently dedicated to presenting emerging artists. If the success of its shows has been varied, the ideas behind them have usually been interesting, and the space is good for showing art.What makes the news all the sadder is that the latest and last show at this location, "Intimacy of Fear," is one of the best.

It's not often that an exhibit, as an installed entity, looks as handsome as "BMA Collects: Contemporary Prints in Series" at the Baltimore Museum of Art.The Link/Benesch galleries, devoted to prints and drawings and inaugurated at the time the west wing for contemporary art opened in 1994, provide an unusually attractive setting for art in the first place.Two slightly unequal rectangular spaces with double glass doors at either end, they're neat, tailored looking, restful in their proportions.

Aside from the face, the hands are the most expressive part of the human body. Anyone who doubts that need only drop in on "Collection in Context," the current photography show at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.The show includes only photographs in which hands are an important element of the picture. Among other things, these works demonstrate that hands can express the whole range of human emotions.The drooping, cigarette-holding hand in Jack Pierson's "Et Maintenant (And Now)" (1993-1994)

Not long ago I had a conversation with a friend in Philadelphia who asked about the Maryland Institute, College of Art. Her son was thinking of applying there and the two of them had justvisited the Institute. I said I hoped they had seen the current faculty exhibit, since I thought that would give them a good idea of the caliber of the faculty.Were I a parent whose child was thinking of studying art, after seeing the current faculty exhibit at Towson State University I'd certainly hope he'd go somewhere else.

Talk of a year-round TV season - with new shows popping up any old time and not just the fall - hasn't affected spring's pilot season. Two-thirds of the roughly 100 pilots under way will be shelved. But what has gotten the green light so far gives a hint at what the networks are interested in. In a year when a quirky new scripted program, Desperate Housewives, proved it could vault over reality shows to rank No. 1, there's hope for network shows with new ideas - though there's no shortage of the usual suspects proposed.

Beautiful, complex and lengthy were the dances in Chen & Dancers' program when the New York-based troupe performed Saturday night at Towson University.The five-work performance at Stephens Hall Theatre was the highlight of the university's Asian Art Center exhibition "West Meets East." Choreographer H. T. Chen creates dances finely drawn from the Asian experience (both theatrically and from real life), and his dances are a magical alchemy of Asian and Western sensibilities.The opening dance, "Double Happiness, One Hundred Sorrows," set to music by Bradley Kaus, explored the friction between the traditional arranged marriage and the modern concept of marrying for love.

It was a good idea, but it didn't work out as well as it coul have."News as Muse," the title of the recently opened exhibit at School 33 (through March 22), says exactly what it's about: how artists take inspiration from newspapers. It's an interesting, even an exciting-sounding premise, and curator Mark Barry invited artists from the area and elsewhere including such well-known names as Red Grooms and Leon Golub.But there are problems. For one thing, the show isn't focused enough. Newspapers contain a lot of stuff, from war news to the funnies.

The Maryland Institute College of Art is awash in absorbing, occasionally provocative, exhibits these days. As for the provocative, consider "In This, I Believe," a juried show on view through Sunday with works by students, faculty and staff that address issues of faith and spirituality. It's part of MICA's Unity Week, an annual project started in 2008 to focus on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. A mix of reactions to the subject matter can be detected in this display, which starts in the lobby of the Brown Center and moves to a corridor upstairs.

Gomez Gallery's current three-artist show has the virtue of consistency. Each of the artists reveals ability and promise. None can yet be called a thoroughly original talent, and the reason's different in each case. But they all look as if they have the potential to get there, so it'll probably be worthwhile to stay tuned.John McGarity's paintings, often containing an element of photography, are expressionist in feel and look as if they relate to the collective unconscious -- the shared memory of the human species.