By Judy Birke

NEW HAVEN — The current exhibit at Gallery 195 is an intimate presentation that pairs paintings by Barbara Marks with prints by Vanilia Majoros. Although the works have no particular allegiance to each other in style, medium and content, they offer a glimpse into some of the things that are currently happening in artists’ studios.

Marks’ works are from her “Cakes in Situ” series. They comprise a blend of two previous projects, “Cosmos 1208” and “Birthday Cakes,” that explored concepts of space and time, respectively. Her metaphor of means is the birthday cake, a familiar object that is at once a joyous symbol of celebration and a potent reminder of time’s passage.

An effective blend of seemingly simple content and form, the works are extremely appealing, possessing a disarming and quirky sensibility that invites further reflection.

Some of the most engaging inclusions, like “No. 4 (3 reds + 1 green),” a lush expression in pinks and purples, physical and immediate, with painterly brushstrokes and high-key color, of a plattered cake that fills the picture surface and “No. 8 (cosmos mariner),” of a cake within a stark red landscape of ambiguous spatial alignment, both that brandish just enough subtle linework, are fresh and original, pointing at once to the cakes as references to formal elements like color and composition and to asssociative concerns that reference culture and connection. So, too, “No. 11 (blue room) and “No. 6 (green plain),” and “No. 12 (frontier),” flow freely with fine passages of color and a lyrical sense of vitality. Others, like “No. 5 (nocturne),” of a cake centered within a cubist-like configuration, and “No. 2 (lake cake),” that appears to allude to a surreal genre, pieces in which Marks makes obvious reference to art historical references, are more limited in their appeal, losing the sense of easy unity one finds in the best pieces.

Majoros’ prints are more modest in narrative content, revealing an artist intent on exploring a sense of the parameters and possibilities of her medium.

Many of the works, like “We Are Two in Red,” of abstracted butterfly-like shapes that float across the picture surface, or “Bark Family,” of random surface rubbings, are activated by textures and patterns that reveal the natural tendencies of the materials from which they emerge. The most interesting works are a series of woodcut monoprints from “Two Rivers,” that are permutations of a single idea, in which orderly forms of varied tones and shapes are given a sense of space, as they float within a unified arrangement of their own realm.

Judy Birke of New Haven is a freelance writer and art consultant.

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