Seven Deadly Sins If Joe Gregory, a self-taught painter of surreal landscapes, were a formally trained artist, some mortarboard-wearing academic type would have gotten around to telling him that a series of paintings based on the Seven Deadly Sins was a prosaic idea and that he should try something else. But then this great series would never have happened, which would be too bad, because Gregory uses the initial concept as an armature to hang his visual ideas, which are edgy, troubling and (pleasingly) affected. The paintings are well executed and slightly queasy — due in part to the strange translucence of the skin on Gregory's figures, but mostly due to his approach to the subject's mortal implications. "Wrath," beautifully composed, depicts a satisfied-looking woman in repose holding a pair of scissors, a beheaded teddy bear on the floor nearby. As in the rest of the exhibited works, the elements here are deliberately chosen and artfully arranged, creating an artificiality that speaks to the artist's ironic approach. In "Lust," a woman cuddles a cartoony stuffed rabbit between her thighs; the inspired "Envy" depicts a thin woman hungering after a slice of cake in the possession of her obese, nude couchmate. "Gluttony" ambiguously depicts a woman who has either dosed or overdosed herself with a nearby syringe. The exhibit's most controversial piece is obviously "Sloth," a splayed-out male figure too languorous to get up from the table on which he has collapsed — or to put on a pair of briefs. Indeed, the man in "Sloth" is undeniably well rendered in all his anatomical detail. Through May 31 at the Late Show Gallery, 1600 Cherry, 816-474-1300. (Chris Packham)

My show opens this friday night 6-9pm, The Late Show Gallery 16th Cherry st. kcmo.  The reception is open invitation so feel free to stop by have a drink and check out some art.