Above is Mernet Larsen’s Icon, one of the pieces in the “Dragon Veins” exhibition at the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum.

Why “Dragon Veins”?

The title refers to the term in Chinese art meaning the unseen connections within a painting. The show aims to explore the connections artists are making between Eastern and Western painting traditions and the contemporary flow of cultural exchange.

Which is why I like Larsen’s painting, because it’s evocative of Soviet-era graphic artwork: Heavily cubist-inspired, with textured colors. Russian media interpretation historically has been very Eastern-inspired, and images like this strike me as the modern distillation of that sensibility. I’ve previously expressed a fondness for this school of art, so it’s easy to guess what’s going to appeal to my eye.

I won’t have any time to swing by USF for this show. So I’ll just have to enjoy what I can glean from the newspaper.