BOCA RATON, FL.- Who is the mysterious figure at the center of Boca Raton Museum of Art’s new exhibition, Andrew Stevovich: The Truth About Lola? Ponder this, and other artful riddles, when the show opens March 17, 2009. The exhibition will run through May 31, 2009.

Andrew Stevovich (born in Austria in 1948-) may consider himself to be an abstract painter more concerned with meticulous composition than with narrative, but don’t tell that to the highly figurative characters appearing on his canvases. The deadpan paintings, with their frozen moments of social interactions, are set in the contemporary world, though their crisp design, brilliant color and precise surfaces recall the early Italian Renaissance masters from Giotto to Botticelli.

One could surmise that Stevovich’s interest in the theatrical – he considered studying filmmaking while an undergraduate at the Rhode Island School of Design – has influenced his work. Many of the paintings – including the title piece of the exhibition, “The Truth About Lola” – delve into the realm of theatre, parties and entertainment, often with seemingly less-than-satisfactory results.

This exhibition of more than seventy-five paintings and drawings will explore Stevovich’s relationship and inspiration drawn from twentieth-century German Expressionism. Lurking behind the figures’ shifty gazes are nightclubs, neon, card games, and cocktails, all captured with an air of alienated decadence linking Stevovich directly to the tradition of artists like George Grosz and Max Beckman, known for their jaundiced looks at café society.

Andrew Stevovich: The Truth About Lola has been organized by the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York.