Canadian art would appear to be auspiciously in tune with postmodern pluralism, judging from “Beyond Borders: an Exhibition of Fine Art from Canada,” on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, from January 2 through 23. (Reception Thursday, January 4, 6 to 8 PM.)
   Perhaps the following capsule comments will give an impression of its diversity and scope: Paul Cavilla's paintings combine a sense of narrative with vibrant colors and  sumptuous surfaces, accomplished with a palette knife technique that imbues his figures with a palpable physical presence. The subject of Cavilla's “Thinking Man” appears literally aflame with thought.
   Employing a process based on the lost wax technique, Alicja Cetnarowski creates figures that fairly writhe with a sense of life. In their final bronze incarnations, particularly, they seem to embody a host of human emotions by virtue of Cetnarowski's expressive formal distortions.
    Equally powerful in a more abstract manner, the bronzes of the artist known as Saya reduce biomorphic forms to their essence. In Saya's sculptures, the serpentinely flowing shapes can seem simultaneously sensual and  threatening. The paintings of Louise P. Rouleau, on the other hand, are characterized by fiery hues and  boldly blocked-in figurative forms. Employing pastel pigments on canvas, Rouleau employs color as an emotive element through which to reveal the subject's “secrets.”
   Unambiguously lighthearted, Kathy Meaney's  “Ladies of the Lake” paintings depict  Rubens-esque matrons frolicking at the sea shore. Like the British painter L.S. Lowry, Meaney employs a “sophisticated primitive” style to capture our common pleasures and foibles with sympathetic wit.
   If the work of the next two painters are any indication, a nascent mode of mystical expressionism may be brewing in Canada: The widely exhibited painter Lynda Pogue's works in mixed media, water-based paints and wax transform landscape subjects into compositions that not only compel us with their abstract virtues but convey an emotional resonance. In the composition Pogue calls “Solitude,” for example, a lone tree seems a surrogate for our inner longings. By contrast, Jane Rusin employs a combination of strident red and yellow color areas and precisely rendered architectural forms to evoke a magical mood, reminiscent of Loren McIver's semi abstract urban poetry, in her luminous painting “NYC Glow.”
  Paula Sommers uses baroque forms and a muted palette of gray, brown, and pink hues to dynamic effect in paintings such as “Urban Diptych” and “Heart Condition Diptych,” both of which seem to inhabit that peculiar plateau where the abstract and the surreal converge. Like Matta's metaphysical vistas, Sommer's compositions take us into uncharted territory; yet we seem to glimpse vestiges of reality within the overall abstract thrust of her compositions.
   Clifford Jean-Felix, a relative of Jean-Michel Basquiat, paints elongated  expressionist figures that recall the sculpted figures of Giacometti. Bathed in shimmering hues, Jean-Felix's svelte, androgynous personages symbolize the commonality of the universal soul. By contrast, Elana Kaufman deals with the details that signify our individuality and the emotions evoked by particular memories. Thus, Kaufman's pictures have titles like “Home” and “Family,” and their pale colors evoke the nostalgic pang of faded snapshots.
   Atousa Foroohary offers a refreshingly direct take on landscape, particularly in one lyrical painting of a rustic road leading into a forest. Devoid of “isms,” Faroohary's compositions are unabashed celebrations of the natural world. Then there is Dergachoff, a sculptor whose figures appear simultaneously classical and surreal. While delving into the realm of myth, Dergachoff's imaginative pieces are animated by an appealing wit.

Opening reception January 4th, 6 to 8 PM.
From January 2nd through January 23rd at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, Chelsea.