01:00 AM EST on Thursday, November 27, 2003

For years, Newport gallery owner William Vareika has been the go-to guy for works by 19th-century American artists such as John La Farge, William Trost Richards and John Frederick Kensett.

Now he's expanding his artistic empire to include everything from European Old Master paintings to works by modern masters such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol to non-Western art from Asia and Africa.

Two weeks ago, Vareika opened "The Newport Gallery of World Art," a posh new exhibit space next to his longtime digs on Bellevue Avenue.

Newporters may recall the site as the former home of Cabbages & Kings, a high-end housewares shop that closed in January. Now, after a makeover that includes new track lighting and a fresh coat of deep-blue paint, it's a place where 17th-century Dutch still lifes rub shoulders with French Impressionist landscapes and American Pop Art portraits.

"It was one of those now-or-never moments," Vareika said during a tour of the gallery last week. "Over the years, I've often thought about expanding, but there was never enough room to do it right. Then the Cabbages & Kings space opened up and I thought: 'Let's do it.' "

SINCE OPENING William Vareika Fine Arts in 1987, Vareika has focused mainly on American art from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. But he said the World Art gallery would be more eclectic, reflecting the best works he could "buy or borrow" at a given time.

Certainly, "eclectic" describes the gallery's inaugural exhibit.

The show's earliest entry is a 1505 etching by German painter-printmaker Albrecht Durer. The most recent work -- a lush, paint-swabbed canvas by British artist Howard Hodgkin -- dates from 2000.

As always, the quality is extemely high (the Durer, for example, is so fresh it practically glows). And the number of name-brand artists is impressive, even for a well-established gallery.

In the Old Master category, look for Jan Van Goyen's Landscape with Figures, a 17th-century farm scene that has all the elements -- a winding country road, a pair of gnarled oaks, a gaggle of ruddy-faced peasants -- of classic Dutch landscape painting.

Impressionist fans have a couple of gems to chose from.

One is Gustave Courbet's darkly brooding landscape, La Source Au Matin. Though never an Impressionist himself, Courbet exerted a strong influence on many artists who were, including Monet and Renoir.

Even more striking is L'Eglise de Moret, le soir (Moret Church, Evening) by British-born Impressionist Alfred Sisley.

Like Monet's famous cathedral series, Sisley's canvas pits Impressionism's knack for capturing fleeting effects of light and shadow against the majestic bulk of an old stone church. The result is a glorious standoff: the church's craggy, rough-hewn walls provide the perfect foil for Sisley's jittery brushwork.

FOR MORE CONTEMPORARY tastes, there are etchings by Picasso and Matisse, as well as a rare late painting, Vertical Composition, by Jackson Pollock. The show also features several Warhol prints, including a surprisingly respectful 1984 homage to one of the icons of modern art: Edvard Munch's The Scream.

At the same time, some of the show's best works aren't by A-list artists.

Flemish artist Jan Van Thielen, for example, isn't exactly a household name. Yet his luscious study of a glass vase filled with tulips and other flowers is a beauty -- as dewy-fresh today as it was when it was painted in the mid-17th-century.

Other highlights include works by Norwegian Impressionist Frits Thaulow, French artist Francis-Joseph Luigi Loir and American Rackstraw Downes, whose panoramic 1986 view of the Hackensack River (A Bend in the Hackensack at Jersey City) is enough to rekindle your faith in contemporary painting.

Through Jan. 18 at the William Vareika Gallery, 214 Bellevue Ave., Newport. Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10-6, Sun. 1-6. Phone: 847-5431.

New at Salve

Step inside Salve University's art gallery these days and the first thing you see is a billboard-size video of a woman walking down a sidewalk. With each step, the gallery echoes with the sound of a pair of monstrous Mary Janes meeting gritty concrete: Crunch, crunch, crunch!

As it turns out, steps and shoes also resonante metaphorically in Domain, an installation by Newport artist Susannah Strong.

In addition to the video, Domain consists of six closet-size rooms, which visitors enter through closed doors. In one, Strong has installed a velvet-covered throne. In another, a winding (and increasingly claustrophic) stairway leads to a hidden door. In a third, visitors enter a metal-paneled room filled with ghostly whispers and camera lenses.

By the time you arrive at the sixth and final room, you realize that Strong has created an updated Pilgrim's Progress -- a magical mystery tour that leads from cradle to grave and unites soles and souls.

What's behind the last door? Visit Domain and find out.

Through Dec. 7 at University Gallery, Salve Regina University, 100 Ochre Point Ave., Newport. Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 11-4, Fri. 11-1 and Sun. 2-4. Phone: 341-2254.

Hunter shows his metal

Not everything that glitters in Paul Hunter's paintings is gold. It can also be silver, bronze or aluminum.

Hunter, a New York artist whose work is currently on display at A&C Fine Art in East Greenwich, starts by covering his canvases with thin sheets of metallic foil. The foil then provides a shimmering surface for the artist's delicate wash-like landscapes.

In his recent "Barn" series, for example, Hunter places clusters of tiny box-shaped structures in vast open spaces. The results -- all rendered in rich vermilions and terracottas against gleaming gold- and bronze-leaf backgrounds -- suggest luxurious versions of Japanese Sumi-ink drawings.

Hunter is also a regular visitor to Newport -- hence his "Estate" series, a group of smoldering studies of the Cliff Walk and Newport mansions.

Whether Hunter's style strikes you as gaudy or gorgeous, he remains a talented painter. Still, on occasion, it would be nice to see him start where most other painters start -- with a blank, ungilded canvas.

Through Sunday at A&C Fine Art, 1575 South County Trail (Route 2), East Greenwich. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10-6, Sat. 9-5 and Sun. noon-5. Phone: 884-1575.