Face value

Before it goes off the grid and into its annual August hibernation, the Pamela Skinner/Gwenna Howard Contemporary Art gallery presents the group show Off the Grid. Included in the exhibition is the visceral work of Sacramentan Rogelio Manzo. His portraits mostly depict just the head and shoulders of his subjects, but the visages are mangled: Facial features are erratically placed and layers of exhausted pinks and grays give them cadaverous countenances. These are portraits that peer through the flesh and straight into the emotional bank of the individual. The neutral color palette softens against the raw physiognomies, as does the gauzelike grid Manzo paints to cover all but the subjects’ skin. But, of course, bandages can’t cover up conflicts of the psyche. Works by Chris Botta, Paule Dubois Dupuis, Jennifer Mercede and Linda Raynsford are also showing.