Painter Bruce Ackerson and sculptor Sally Curcio will exhibit work in the Hampshire College Art Gallery from February 16 through March 15. A reception for the artists will be held Sunday, February 19, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Ackerson and Curcio have more in common than having studios at the Arts & Industry Building in Florence, MA. Their work shares a similar panoptic perspective, whimsically and colorfully capturing entire environments that entire the viewer to enter fantastic worlds.

In Ackerson’s paintings, the visual and the narrative go hand in hand. The artist uses a consistent format of medium- to large-sized square works painted in oils on panel. The paintings are distinguished by their high vantage points and richly textured surfaces. From a birds-eye view, Ackerson presents “scenes which are an imaginative take on popular culture, modern life, and the hidden world of the human psyche. His beautiful, agitated brushwork adds to the tension inherent in his unusual depictions, making his work both compelling and highly appealing” (Marla Rice, Rice/Polak Gallery).

Ackerson is represented by Rice/Polak Gallery in Provincetown and Art 101 in Brooklyn. He received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1999, and his paintings are in collections worldwide.

Curcio’s “Bubble” (shown at top) uses materials such as pins, beads, false eyelashes, tennis balls, shuttlecocks, and make-up application pads to create miniature worlds rendered in 12-inch x 12-inch squares enclosed under acrylic glass bubbles. The tiny worlds not only evoke fantasy, but also a kind of nostalgia for mythical or fairytale lands of childhood.

Curcio is represented by William Baczek Fine Arts gallery in Western Massachusetts and Fresh Paint Art Advisors in California. She also has work in the flat files at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston and Morton Fine Art in Washington, D.C. In 2010, Curcio received the Blanche E. Colman Grant Award. In 2011 her work was chosen for the DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY.

This exhibition and the artists’ reception are free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.