Artbeat

For anyone who has been inside the tiny display space that is Artist's Eye Fine Art Gallery in Dania Beach, a continuing source of amazement is the amount of art that owner Timothy Leistner is able to pack into the place — and he invariably does it without making the space feel cluttered or claustrophobic. His latest show, "Texture and Form," features the work of four artists, including Leistner himself, who is also a painter and photographer. Here he weighs in with a quartet of mixed-media works inspired by the four seasons (Springtime Magnolias is the standout), as well as four portraits of other artists reimagined as androids (including a life-sized nude of a local gallery owner to whom nature has been most generous). Virginia Fifield is represented by only a trio of large charcoal drawings, but they're meticulously rendered stunners — long-stemmed flowers, unpotted, with their roots and bulbs exposed. A little alcove in the gallery is devoted to Steven Sylvester, who is well-known for his mixed-media dresses, which are simultaneously earthy and ethereal. There are a dozen of them here, one full-sized, with the remaining ones adjusted in scale to fit into the space allotted to them. The foursome is rounded out by LeeAnna Yater, whose fiber/appliqué creations incorporate bright colors and silky textures. The most effective are a handful that re-create in fabric the symmetrical geometric patterns of Hindu and Buddhist mandalas. They're all outshown, however, by Yater's untitled piece that consists of 30 tiny ceramic tiles, some painted, some affixed with old family photos, some mirrored so that the viewer is literally drawn into the work.