PAINTING TURNS SUBTLY SCULPTURAL IN "BENIGN AGGRESSORS," the four-artist show at Pazo Fine Art's D.C. location. Anne Clare Rogers, one of two Baltimoreans, is the only participant who offers free-standing pieces. But Washington's Maggie King Johns makes wall-mounted relief sculptures of plaster painted in baby's-room pastels. And Enise Carr and Alex Ebstein -- from D.C. and Baltimore, respectively -- overlay some of their pictures with netting or twine, and Ebstein also appends small accents in the form of beads or glazed-ceramic shapes.
One of the strongest entries actually forgoes such embellishments. Carr's "Cascade II" is a woodblock monoprint whose layered abstract gestures include bright gold splashes that give the composition an Asian feel. But the artist's dark "Triptych" incorporates pipe cleaners and sits below a lattice of thin netting.
The base levels of Ebstein's pieces are considerably thicker than canvas or paper: They're made of yoga mats, cut together and sometimes painted. The flat, hard-edged shapes contrast three-dimensional additions that resemble blossoms or teardrops. Flowers are also among the things suggested by Johns's recessed forms, some of which are pressed into tiles arranged as if they're remnants of a lost civilization.
The least symmetrical artworks by Rogers, whose spindly creations combine wood and metal disconcertingly. In the eerie "Three legs," the natural becomes industrial -- or the opposite. Perhaps that's the aggressive aspect of all four artists's work: These pieces refuse to stay on one level, or commit to one configuration.