ModArtists gallery will present Terrains, a dual exhibition of the work of artists Jan Ayers Friedman and Pat Haverfield.

Finding your way is a challenge that all of us face, whether it is simply locating a destination or discovering the path of our lives. The surest way of accomplishing this is to know the terrain: to explore and familiarize yourself with your surroundings, boundaries, and the obstacles that you may face along the way. Knowing the unknowable is an omniscient force that we can hardly hope to attain, but through the eye and work of the artist we may hope to attain some faint understanding of the infinite possibilities of the world around us, and know them by their names and forms as the artist suggests them to us.

Friedman spent 30 years as a designer and drafter for civil engineers, and still finds herself reaching for the familiar tools of pencil and graphite to create her work. Topographical symbols and scale grids are not uncommon components in her work, as she strives to create an understanding of the abstract landscapes that she fashions in her mind and documents on canvases and in sculptural media, constantly struggling with "how the things you want are always on the other side of the lines and grids, and how time and place are measured in dollops of 
geometry." The more gestural curls and drips in her work suggest figures and personalities, and her fascination with new contexts for found objects gives us both a true sense of personal and objective perspective.

Haverfield doesn't simply create art: he creates the medium as well. Each and every image is a document of an alien world that he has fashioned himself. The process begins by growing crystals. Once these physical structures are created the work can begin. He employs a camera that can zoom in on a microscopic level to survey the enthralling landscapes that exist within these crystals, and once he finds something that catches his eye he creates an image. Pat is an accomplished advertising photographer and director by trade, and often finds himself working with organic materials in the form of food. He has always found himself drawn to nature, and has described himself in another life and time as "a devoted beachcomber, who was always looking for that truly extraordinary seashell, and the most interesting piece of driftwood, beach glass, or dried seaweed." His fascination has not changed, but rather than treading the beaches and collecting objects of fascination he is creating objects and moving beyond the limitations of human sight to discover and capture the beauty within them that would otherwise go unseen and be completely unknown.

Following the opening reception, the exhibition will continue through March 21.