Dozier Bell's new work, The Conflict Series, are views of unidentified landscapes from different contemporary perspectives which carry military overtones. Each one is marked by a kind of targeting or mapping device which furthers the sense of the ominous scene. Sometimes we seem to be airborne, rocketing across the sky, at other times looking from sea level, or peering upwards into the heavens. Bell accentuates the mood by painting the scenes almost completely grisaille, and only upon close inspection do her images disclose the subtleties and nuances of an extremely rich surface.

Bell is one of a group of artists who late in the twentieth century turned their attention to the tradition of landscape in America, and played off the nineteenth century tradition of using the landscape to express the sublime. Whereas in those earlier landscapes, for example, those of Frederick Edwin Church or Albert Bierstadt, the human figure was included to demonstrate man's smallness in comparison to the landscape and to create awe and reverence, contemporary artists have eliminated the human figure entirely, but not the implication of its presence. In Bell's case, it is the targeting devices which remind us of a human presence in these contemporary scenes.

The targeting devices are either little crosses or horizontal and vertical patterns of lines which are always geometric. Since geometry is often included in landscape painting to create the impression of the rational in the face of the emotional forces of nature, there is a kind of irony in Bell's notations. The act of targeting or surveillance is often done under the guise of some authoritative rationale, but often has led to disastrous results...

Bell's work allows for a sense of the spiritual. Take, for example, No. 46, 1999 or No. 38, 1999, where the focus is clearly towards the heavens. There is something mystical in the quality of light which washes across the sky in the latter while the pinpoint lights in the former resonate an ethereal light. All hope is not lost in these images, even though the landscapes themselves seem barren, remote and uninhabitable. What might otherwise be considered a nihilistic view of earth, or at least an apocalyptic one, is mediated by Bell's overall attention to the nuances of the surfaces. Soft and subtle passages of slightly altered hues enliven the surfaces with a richness which enables the conflicts within to achieve a crescendo. Her handling of paint creates a formal tension which presses the limits of the relationship between abstraction and representation.

As a whole, The Conflict Series represents a maturation in the work of Dozier Bell. This group of paintings have a consistency of quality to them which previously appeared sporadically in her paintings. In the past, there has been a hint of the idea of conflict in the work, but now, as Bell develops this theme, what emerges is a resonance which can act as a catalyst for her painting in the future.