In which our art critics highlight a favorite work on view at Artomatic

Landscapes often center on serene views of tamable wilderness. Sure, Thomas Cole threw in the occasional thunderstorm, but only to suggest the potential of peril, a caution to pursue at your own risk, because this was the frontier: It’s not all unicorns and rainbows. Jeff Wilson‘s work, on the fourth floor of Artomatic, puts a little twist on the picturesque by planting a funnel cloud right in the middle of rolling wheat fields and stretches of poppies. If the devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., last year is any reminder, irrespective of the ribbons of concrete we pour onto the land, and the number of houses that dot a town, nature is capable of taking it all away rather quickly with an EF5. Nature gives us lots of pretty things to look at; it can also kill us.