HALLOWELL — The Harlow Gallery will kick off the new year with John Carnes’ expressive watercolors, Matt Demers’ graffiti-inspired mixed-media pieces and Scott Minzy’s graphic linocut prints. This exhibition will be on view at 160 Water Street from Jan. 16-Feb. 7, with an opening reception from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16.

Through different methods each of these artists is exploring aspects of the way he sees and understands reality through the lens of the subconscious. Whether through an abstract map of the psyche, an exploded view of one’s character or through an illustrative psychodrama, each artist makes a long distance call to his subconscious in order to produce his art.

By placing Carnes’, Demers’, and Minzy’s work together, a complex dialog among the three begins to emerge. Issues such as fear, regret, longing, and acceptance are touched upon in subtle and nuanced ways each in the style of the individual artists.

Like a dream, when making the long distance call the artist does not know who or what he’ll get, a nightmare or a fantasy. This exhibition will invite the contemplation of difficult, contradictory and often personal issues raised by the artistic process.

John Carnes

For the past 20 years, Carnes has been drawing and painting the mountains, rivers and streams of the remote western regions of Maine, the Baxter State Park area, and the Kennebec River Valley. He works primarily in watercolor, pastel, and graphite. His expression of the Maine landscape may be realistic, representational or abstract.

Carnes brings this same love and expressiveness to his work with the human figure. Most recently he has been exploring the use of multiple graphite lines and limited color to suggest the transitory nature of things in the world, their continuous coming into existence and their impermanence, as well as exploring more formal issues of shape, line, form and color.

For the last five years, Carnes has been one of six artists with private work space at Artdogs Studios, in Gardiner. Visit Artdogs, 277 Water Street, by appointment at 207-208-9232, or email johnecarnes@hotmail.com.

Matt Demers

Demers is a primarily self-taught artist from Gardiner, with a background in graphic design. He has been creating his whole life and began selling work while he was still in high school. He began his career painting graffiti art and elements of that still appear in his current work. His inspiration comes from the good and bad of the chaos and changes in life. In his paintings he captures that constant commotion with strong forms, vivid colors, and rapid yet decisive brush strokes.

Scott Minzy

Minzy makes artist’s books, relief prints and animations that deal with the universal themes of fear, regret and longing. His past life in public relations and corporate sales has led him to seek a less jaded but more authentic life in the state of his birth. As a result, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine and teaches fine art and digital media at Erskine Academy as well as in his studio in Gardiner. For more information, vist www.scottminzy.com.

The Harlow Gallery’s hours are noon-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 207-622-3818 or visit www.harlowgallery.org.