01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, September 16, 2004

Since closing her Wickenden Street gallery in 1998, Sara Agniel has lived the life of an art-world gypsy, mounting exhibits in such unlikely places as an Olneyville mill complex, a West End funeral home and the old Peerless-Woolworth's Building on Westminster Street.

Now Agniel is back -- this time in partnership with Martina Windels, owner of the uber-chic Martina & Company on North Main Street.

The result is Gallery Agniel/Martina & Company, a new venture with a long name but a very simple premise: to showcase topnotch contemporary art in the company of Windels' cutting-edge jewelry designs.

"One thing we both believe very strongly is that art and design belong together," Agniel said last week as she and Windels prepared for their Friday-night opening party. "Making a painting and making a piece of jewelry aren't mutually exclusive activities. They're both creative."

At the same time, Windels and Agniel both acknowledged that the pressures of running a gallery -- even one, like Agniel's, with no fixed address -- had made the thought of teaming up more attractive.

Agniel said clients often had trouble tracking her down between exhibits. And Windels, who not only designs and makes her own jewelry but represents many of the top jewelry-makers in the Northeast, complained of juggling roles as artist, saleswoman and small business owner.

"I've been in business for six years, and while it's generally been a very positive experience, it can also get pretty hectic," Windels said. "Right now, having another person around who can make decisions and who you can bounce ideas off of sounds like a great thing."

FOR THE GALLERY'S opening show, Windels and Agniel decided to keep things simple. Each picked one artist -- for Windels it's Providence jewelry-maker Barbara Seidenath; for Agniel it's painter Thomas Sgouros -- whose work they admire and could exhibit in depth.

Sgouros, of course, is a familiar presence on the local gallery scene. In particular, he's known for his "Remembered Landscapes" -- a series of sweeping, cloud-filled compositions that he began after being diagnosed with macular degeneration, an incurable eye disease.

Now nearly blind, Sgouros continues to paint at a remarkably high level. Indeed, the Windels/Agniel show features some of his largest paintings to date, as well as a group of smaller works that push his lifelong fascination with light and color to the limit.

Like Richard Diebenkorn's "Ocean Park" paintings, which obsessively abstract and recycle bits of the California coast, Sgouros's "Remembered Landscapes" aren't literal depictions of actual landscapes. Yet they're not entirely imaginary, either.

Instead, they occupy a middle ground, where memory, emotion and observation all come powerfully -- and, given Sgouros's condition, poignantly -- together.

NATURE IS ALSO a source of inspiration for Seidenath, a German-trained jewelry-maker who's known for her enameling skills.

Her Winter Storm brooch, for example, consists of an oblong silver disc held in place by diamond-tipped pegs. Both the shape of the brooch and the delicate cross-hatching pattern that Seidenath has inscribed on its surface suggest a frozen pond covered with skate marks.

Other pieces, including a sterling silver ring and pair of earrings, are decorated with similar patterns.

Seidenath's "Mosaic Series," meanwhile, takes its inspiration from the mosaics found in Byzantine-era churches. In this case, tiny gold and silver discs are coated with brightly colored enamels, then attached to brooches, earrings and other jewelry pieces.

The results artfully mimic the look of actual gemstones, without the bank-breaking cost.

Through Oct. 9 at Gallery Agniel/Martina & Company, 120 North Main St., Providence. Hours: Tues.-Friday 11-6. Phone: (401) 351-0968. Web: www.galleryagniel.com and www.martina-company.com.

Body of art in metal While Sgouros and Seidenath are both established talents, exhibits at other galleries this week focus on the work of younger artists and designers.

"Metal Adaptation," a new show at the Space at Alice gallery on Union Street, features the work of Amanda White, Kibi Schultz and Gillian Christy. Though trained as jewelry-makers, all three have since expanded their artistic horizons to include more sculptural works.

White, for example, makes cast-bronze medallions depicting various body parts. While the small size and fine detailing give these pieces the look of ancient coins, the subject matter, which ranges from eyes, lips and fingers to more erogenous zones, is decidedly contemporary.

Schultz, whose work mixes elements of jewelry, fashion and S&M, is even kinkier. There's even a picture of the artist lounging in a bra and panties made of barbed wire. (Amazingly, she almost looks comfortable.)

Still, best-of-show honors go to Christy, whose welded-steel wall sculptures suggest the work of a whimsical yet technically gifted armorer. My favorite: Messages from Home, a piece in which a flock of tiny winged notes sits in the windows of a house, waiting to be read.

Through Oct. 2 at the Space At Alice, 186 Union St., Providence. Hours: Thur.-Sat. 4-7. Phone: (401) 421-0254.

Fashion exposure for young designers According to The New York Times, young, unknown fashion designers are all the rage this year. If so, the dozen or so designers participating in "Exposed" -- a fashion show, sale and exhibit opening tonight next to Tazza Caffe on Westminster Street -- should have a hit on their hands.

Organized by downtown developer Cornish Associates in conjuction with the Providence Arts & Business Council, the show features clothing designs by Nina Cinelli, Dawn Hoeg, Jessica Abernathy and others, many of them graduates of RISD's world-class fashion program.

Tonight's opening, which includes a live fashion show, coincides with Providence's monthly Gallery Night festivities. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the fashion show to follow at 8. Tickets are $5.

"Exposed" runs through Oct. 14 at 210-220 Westminster St. (at Eddy St.) in Providence. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

A whole show of terrific work Younger artists are also the focus of "Parts to a Whole," a terrific group show at the AS220 Project Space on Kennedy Plaza. Highlights include Dorthe Alstrup's time-lapse photographs of snowy landscapes and empty highways (believe me, they look better than they sound) and Alexi Chisler's elegant tape-and-wire sculpture (also better than it sounds).

And wood-and-metal contraptions of Chris Deris are wonderful, including one in which turning a pair of hand cranks causes a pair of tiny male and female heads to kiss passionately, then pull apart, and another in which throwing a switch causes four or five figures to begin drawing furiously with whatever body part seems handy.

Through Monday at the AS220 Project Space, One Union Station, Providence. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9-5:30 and Sat. noon-4. Phone 831-9327. Web: www.as220.org.