Marc Dennis, Diana Horowitz

At Hirschl & Adler Modern

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Marc Dennis, “Time on the Sun,” 2007, oil on canvas, 50 by 50 inches.

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Diana Horowitz, “Out to the Bay,” 2007, oil on linen, 14 by 18 inches.

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MARC DENNIS, DIANA HOROWITZ AT HIRSCHL & ADLER MODERN w/2 cuts

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NEW YORK CITY — Hirschl & Adler Modern present the exhibitions “Marc Dennis: New Paintings” and “Diana Horowitz: New Paintings,” on view through March 15.

Dennis’s first solo exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Modern features more than 16 new works in oil, ranging in size from 12 by 12 inches to his “Giganticus” series of 50-by-50-inch canvases.

Whether working on a small or giant scale, Dennis uses his paintbrush as a microscope, revealing — with a perverse preference for odd and surprising details — hidden and subtly altered terrains within the natural world of flowers, fauna, tiny animals, and insects.

As a child intent on becoming a naturalist, Dennis investigated what he now calls “the tiny, weird creatures and funguses” found underneath rocks and overturned branches. The forms, behaviors and colors discovered as a child are reinterpreted in these highly detailed and obsessively delineated paintings of flora and fauna hybrids.

Although at first glance they appear to be faithful recreations of the observed world, Dennis’s canvases present the viewer with a hyper-real unreality. In “True to Life,” supersized pinned wasps rest gagged and isolated in sterile trays, offering a visually playful — albeit morbid — vanitas. Conversely, the various beetles in Coleoptera gleam and hum like freshly minted sports cars,

The otherworldly blooms in “Florigium Quintus Sporealis” blare like megaphones while simultaneously offering seductive pathways to their pollen centers. In “Sapphire Bling Bling,” large imitation daisies open to offer iridescent sapphires — veritable “eye candy” for those willing to be seduced by the voluptuous surfaces, sensuous lines and visual pleasures of oil paint in Dennis’s work.

Horowitz’s second solo exhibition at the gallery features close to 20 new paintings in oil, ranging in size from 8 by 10 inches to 22 by 34 inches.

This exhibition is an departure from her last show, as Horowitz presents, for the first time, a series of purely abstract paintings. These abstractions are shown alongside the open air landscapes depicting the familiar urban panoramas of Brooklyn and Manhattan for which the artist is well-known.

Painting intimate landscapes from direct observation, she returns repeatedly to a chosen site to complete each work, usually limiting the size of her canvas or Masonite panel for easy carrying. However, the resulting works are more than “oil sketches,” for these small, rigorous, quasi-panoramic views convey a surprising amount of information about her subjects.

“Out to the Bay” explores a historic section of the Gowanus Canal, with its loading platforms, storage containers and machinery, while “Green Tanks” features a rhythmic row of mint-green silos, quietly heroic and bathed in sunlight, as reflections dance in the water below.

In “From 7 World Trade,” Horowitz presents the geometric intricacy of the roofs, streets, reflections and gleaming facades of urban city sprawl as orderly, natural and calm. Whether a serene view of a commercial waterway or a bird’s-eye view of city rooftops, Horowitz floods her intensely observed studies with light and atmosphere, making palpable the summer haze and city smog.

Horowitz’s new abstractions share many of the same basic elements as her structured landscapes. Each construction is a celebration of paint — a geometric patchwork of planes of color — inspired by the built environment captured in her landscapes. In them, the artist continues to explore how atmosphere influences the properties of color and light and produces a particular tonal range and mood. Horowitz creates tension through balance and counterbalance, manipulating the space until the painting, as she states, “resolves into something that seems both surprising and inevitable.”

The gallery is at 21 East 70th Street. For information, www.hirschlandadler.com or 212-535-8810.