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THURSDAY

When Hemphill Fine Arts completed its recent move to a bigger exhibition space in Logan Circle, the gallery chose to spotlight a range of artists in its first show. While the names of many of the 22 painters, photographers, and sculptors in “Opening on 14th” will be familiar to Hemphill partisans, a solid majority present new work. Several photographers make strong impressions, including John Brown Jr. with a threatening cloudscape, Max Hirshfeld with a portrait of a “little punk girl” at a tattoo parlor, Anne Rowland with an eerie image of McMansions under stormy skies, and Franz Jantzen with a wide interior view of Jimmy’s Lounge in Fullerton, Ohio—a place far from Jantzen’s usual stomping grounds at the U.S. Supreme Court. The show also features several works by deceased artists (most notably a fine geometrical abstraction by Jacob Kainen) and several worthwhile mixed-media constructions (including Renee Stout’s faux-primitive assemblage that pairs African-American numerology with the numbers racket). The cleverest piece, though, is Al Souza’s Question, a wall-mounted construction made almost entirely of puzzle pieces; its circular shape, at 48 inches in diameter, suggests the tabletop that one might use to arrange it. The show is on view from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (see City List for other dates) at Hemphill Fine Arts, 1515 14th St. NW. Free. (202) 234-5601. (Louis Jacobson)