Surrealist painters often use imagery from the subconscious, but Brian Hoover combines that with iconography from the Middle Ages and earlier, using what you might call “historical memories” to create works that combine myth, magic and spirituality in a work that is surprisingly personal. His “splash technique” of introducing paint to the canvas, then performing a kind of Rorschach test to fill in the human details, creates a sense of dynamism and vibrancy as though the world was born of pigment. (“Girl With Fantastic Hat X” is pictured.)

“Dreams are important to me because they stand as a reminder that all is not orderly in the universe. Life is an enigma. Life is surprising,” Hoover says, and his works certainly are surprising as well. Originally from Pennsylvania, he’s an MFA graduate of SUNY-Buffalo and he teaches painting and printmaking at Southern Utah University.

Contemporary Design & Art Gallery regulars Matasa, Orest Nakonechny, Steve Teuscher and others’ surrealist works add to the atmosphere.

Brian Hoover: Supernatural Wilderness @ Contemporary Design & Art Gallery, 127 S. Main, 801-809-6562, through April 30, free. NewArt4Utah.com.