Knob Noster, Missouri, native Harlan Bonar doesn't follow prevailing art trends and isn't a Crossroads habitué. Instead, he travels paths he blazes himself, painting decidedly unhip, fiery biblical scenes and historical dioramas — including an exhibit of Civil War paintings exhibited at the Late Show Gallery in July. The works depict real-life battles with a laser focus on tiny details and historical authenticity. Bonar's obvious scholarship can't hold back the blood-red intensity of his vision or the palpable energy of his vistas, which are more the terrain of the artist's mind than 19th-century American landscape. Fitting, then, that such a distinctive vision hung on the walls of the Late Show Gallery, still one of the best area venues for emerging artists.
