Paintings by Chris Mars, James Disney

Given Chris Mars’ greater fame as the former drummer for the Replacements, you might well think that his career as a fine artist is mere rock-star dilettantism. It’s not. He’s the real thing, a skillful visual artist whose work echoes the semi-apocalyptic grotesque tradition of Hieronymous Bosch and World War I artist George Grosz. To make a more modern-day comparison, Mars comes across as a far less whimsical Tim Burton, especially in his repeated use of Halloween imagery. Disturbing, distorted Frankensteinian monsters populate his landscapes, bloated beings of bizarre and demonic ugliness. It is perhaps not surprising, then, to learn that Mars’ art is a conscious attempt to deal with a traumatic family history of schizophrenia. Often these figures are not demons, but lonely, suffering outcasts. Mars’ aim is to draw out their inner beauty and dignity without whitewashing their external horror. If anything, he’s too successful at the latter; empathy for these ghastly souls does not come easily. But maybe that’s the point. (Mars is still active in music as well, planning to release a new record soon.) Showing through Oct. 19 at Theiss is the very different but equally worthy painter James Disney, a Lutheran minister, whose often pensive watercolors draw on Biblical stories and late-medieval religious iconography to echo his own spiritual struggles. Kellie Rae Theiss Gallery, (612) 339-1094, theissgallery.com, chrismarspublishing.com