In the Galleries - Jackie Saccoccio and Arthur Osver: A Centennial Celebration CLOSES June 30 at Philip Slein

All but one of these lush, large-scale abstractions by New York-based painter Jackie Saccoccio are titled Portrait. And although none depicts a central "subject," each evokes a singular presence limned in long crosshatching drips, diffuse color fields, thick strokes and an array of other emotive painterly gestures that show but stop emphatically short of bluntly revealing. In analogous fashion, Saccoccio tempers her high-voltage palette of pinks, electric blues and acid greens with watery, often mirrorlike passages of mica-inflected white. In place of the central visage one would expect in a "portrait," the artist supplies a focal point of cloudiness edged by exposed underlayers: thick swipes, piled strata of hues and glassy glazes that reticulate and bubble up at the margins of placidity. The works are inscrutably fine, promising revelation not via what is presented but rather via what is withheld, appearing to bare everything at their center but giving away nothing. Also showing — Arthur Osver: A Centennial Celebration This collection of paintings and works on paper by longtime St. Louis artist and Washington University instructor Arthur Osver (who died in 2006 and would have turned 100 this year) serves as an elegant homage to St. Louis' heritage of art and culture; paired with Saccoccio's show to inaugurate the Slein Gallery's new location, it celebrates the continuum while moving resolutely forward. Through June 30 at Philip Slein Gallery, 4735 McPherson Avenue; 314-361-2617 or www.philipsleingallery.com. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat.