-Lorraine Sack, ‘Figure with Magenta Background.’-

The gallery’s latest offering, Perspectives: An All Woman Group Show, is just what the title promises. Eight female artists comprise the exhibition of varied media, including glass, pastel, painting, collage, fiber and mixed media. This is by no means a conclusive exhibit — a “best of” — and yet there is a cohesiveness here that suggests a feminine sensibility. To say that a particular work of art has “feminine” qualities is to tread on dangerous ground. The qualities we generally ascribe to femininity — soft vs. hard, open vs. closed, irrational vs. rational — are at best stereotypes and at worst plain wrong. We should all know by now that men and women possess varying degrees of all of these qualities. And yet we can’t escape it.

Women often explore traditional issues related to the feminine gender: the role of women in society — either as an observation or a criticism — or even the perceptions or celebrations of what it means to be a woman, as well as what it doesn’t mean. Perspectives brings together eight female artists who may or may not overtly express themselves from a gendered perspective; but at the end of the day, none of these artworks is an obvious “feminine” expression — at least in superficial terms. There is a sensitivity, though; one that any good artist — male or female — will possess: an ability to draw forth an individual, passionate response to something through the visual media.

What do these women artists explore?

Andrea Eberbach works in the medium of pastel to create idyllic landscapes and seemingly fantastical ones. Cindy Wingo paints symbolically and abstracts imagery that contains a political message, which she spells out for us in the wall text. Lorraine Sack paints hauntingly beautiful, realistic, but with an impressionistic lilt, portraits of women — in one case a woman of middle age and robust figure whose beauty radiates, and in another a young woman who does not yet know her beauty. Bernadette Ostrozovich surprises with her oil pastel “paintings” of abstract, brilliantly colorful ’scapes of one form or another, but doesn’t surprise with her mixed media, mixed dimensional collages. Lisa Pelo-McNiece crafts glass into sensuous vessels with a subtle splash of carefully placed color. Lois Main Templeton, known for her large, expressive canvases, instead shares diminutive collages from her archives. Ellie Siskind is carefully and intentionally symbolic with her acrylic paintings of women exploring the psyche through water — diving in, literally, or posed in consideration.

Finally, but not least, Rebecca Lyon offers her series of “Shield” fiber pieces, both stunning for their detail and haunting for their reflective beauty. Lyon contemplates depthful places and manages to create almost disturbing images out of felt, punctured, in one case, with what could be porcupine needles. “In the Beginning” is a cutout — like a globe cut and lain flat, or the pattern of a woman’s figure without limbs — delicately adorned with tiny hairs. Vining thread stitched with black “buds” graces the lower section of the felt. One gets the sense that Lyon is both protecting and laying bare some tender place.

What can be gleaned from such a collection, other than individual moments? Is there a common thread here that we could reflect upon? In the end, the expressions of each of these women are unique as well as subtle — some more about form than emotion, as is the case with any grouping of art. But each artist explores boundaries either of her own or her chosen mediums. Art, after all, is a great risk. What we bring forth from deep within ourselves may or may not fall upon listening ears.

Perspectives: An All Woman Group Show is one view at Dean Johnson Gallery, 646 Massachusetts Ave., 634-8020, ext. 21, through April 28. Call for gallery hours.