Circa Gallery in Minneapolis closes a strong year with its Winter Salon

Abstract painting fans, listen up: Circa Gallery, consistently lovely, consistently underappreciated, will quietly awe us once more with its year-end summit of gallery regulars, always a nice dance of color, silence and atmospherics. It's a crew too talented to pick favorites from, but we're excited to see the new acrylic-on-linen joints by Lindsy Halleckson, which convey a perfect wintry lightness. Their smooth stratus clouds of white-gray break into brush strokes at just the last moment. First-timers this year are Laura Stack, whom we've long admired for her inky, biological blooms of color, and Salt Lake City-area painter Martha Carroll McCowin, who goes darker and denser. Metal sculptures, blown-glass and encaustic works round out the show. (Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Fri., Circa Gallery, 210 N. 1st St., Mpls. circagallery.org)

GREGORY J. SCOTT