Critic's Pick — Ruth Chase: 'Unbreakable Light'

California-born, Nashville-based artist Ruth Chase makes mostly figurative paintings that combine personal curiosity and scientific sensibility. For Unbreakable Light, an exhibition of new and recent paintings, sculptures and video that opens Thursday at Galerie Tangerine, she will open up a conversation about the enduring mystery of light. Her inclusion of vintage photographs brings a spiritualist perspective to the work — viewers familiar with the images from the early 1900s of séances and ectoplasm will find a lot to love here. “I have become obsessed with light, science and consciousness, pulling on the thread and following it wherever it takes me,” Chase says in her artist’s statement. “The work is a record of what I’ve been noticing, a collection of meditations disguised as art.” The exhibit will also include a new series of carved wall sculptures called “Light Keepers,” which function as altars and repositories.

Through Oct. 29 at Galerie Tangerine; opening reception 6-8 p.m. Sept. 3

900 King Hollands Ave.