Kara Daving's "pantings" made of rubber bands and acrylic paint on plastic attract the child in all of us.

Witness the diversity of Western New York’s visual arts scene in three group exhibitions this month. Art Dialogue Gallery offers their 10th Annual Members Exhibition, including painting photography and sculpture by some of the area’s most established artists. Buffalo Arts Studio provides a thorough look at work by five emerging artists who keep studios there in a show titled So Far. Spirit at Insite Gallery features inspiring works in mixed media, clay, fiber and water media by five women artists. The compilation of these artists’ works is a thorough survey of the quality we can expect to witness in the region’s galleries.

The 10th Annual Members Exhibition at Art Dialogue (One Linwood Ave.) is a noteworthy mark in a decade of providing exhibition opportunities for artists. As the exhibition is installed, three large landscapes by Nancy Treherne-Craig powerfully welcome you into the gallery. These paintings are each about four-foot square and each describes a different expansive vista, a field entered through a path, framed by trees, hills and long grass. The variety of foliage and the mix of colors she uses to describe them are particularly appealing. In the next room, a large pastel titled Naked Cowboy by Cathy Pardike is a force in pastel that muscles around the paper, creating layered shapes with soft areas within defined shapes which are suggestive of various human and organic forms.

Awards were given to works selected by this year’s juror, Burchfield-Penney Art Center curator Nancy Weekly. The First Place Prize was given to Bill Corning for The Pubescent, a painting that is kind of a twisted contemporary version of Vermeer’s The Girl with a Pearl Earring, in pinks and purples. Second Place went to Bill Golba for his energetic all over collage titled Machines Again. Irene Haupt received Third Prize for “most creative use of the media.” Her winning photograph, titled Apple Sky, has distorted woods in the distance, which is perhaps captured in the reflection on modulated glass, and along the top edge are branches of ripe apples. The way the photo was created is mysterious, as it is apparently not manipulated digitally. The Nova Photo Award was given to Gene Witkowski for Grain Elevator #1. Probably taken at sunset, the decaying metal is reflecting purple light and the stained cement gives off an orange glow.

Because So Far at Buffalo Arts Studio (Tri-Main Building, 2495 Main St.) allows each of five artists the space to show a significant number of works, the show does well to introduce these artists to the Buffalo art scene. The work is mostly young, occasionally experimental and often well made. The exciting, colorful work of Kara Daving is in the first small gallery. This work is fun and literally has colors bouncing around the room. Working on plastic panels with acrylic paint and balloons, the effect is playful, even with environmentalist undertones lurking. The colors are that of plastic toys and appliances, and the materials add to our world of non-biodegradability. The artist pushes us to accept that we are attracted to the colorful, flexible nature of plastic, acrylic and latex, and repelled by our own consumption of endless varieties of objects that will never decay.

David Buck, a graphic designer, has recently gone full-force with a commitment to painting. Here he shows a collection of paintings that begin with antique photographs, from which he borrows the image. Each piece has a limited palette and the image is suspended on the panel. His loose brushstrokes quickly describe the nostalgic scene.

Odd figures and heads sculpted in clay coupled with found objects illustrate Adrienne Lynch’s slightly disturbing world. The monster-like faces are so thoroughly and adeptly made, they look nearly alive. Brian Kavanaugh’s world is all experimentation with pairing of images and materials in a wide range of intriguing, mixed-media works. Thomas Rojek paints body parts cropped as if photographic elements in advertising. The “self-portrait” pieces of his own eyes and hands make this body of work more satisfying than the paintings of pretty women’s legs with high heels and boots. The artist struggles more with the self-portraits, and they are therefore more believable.

The beautiful gallery space at Insite Gallery (810 Elmwood Ave.) is illuminated by the works selected for the exhibit titled Spirit. Four portraits of seasons by Catherine Parker draw you immediately to the wall opposite the entry doors. Here, Parker pools the natural strength of weather and nature in these spiritual paintings that witness her openness to the world. Close by, Nancy Belfer’s fabric wall hangings are direct in their ability to pull your focus. They offer a simple image, with gorgeous details on which you could easily meditate.

The mixed-media works by Joyce Hill provide worlds within vistas. A seemingly abstract field often opens up to subtle found images. Monica Angle’s subtle minimalist works embrace the viewer in grids made of tenderly colored squares of paper. The three-dimensional, hanging, pod-like sculpture made in clay by Kathi Roussel brings the exhibit together by joining the walls by their placement in the space. This show not only features five fine artists but also is an example of the power artists’ works can have when they are shown together, able to converse across gallery walls.