The eight artists in War and Peace address concepts of strife and utopia with a subtlety and complexity that avoids polemic while providing a challenging response to the present war. Four of the artists ambiguously explore the seductive qualities of war's weapons and power. Suzan Batu, originally from Turkey, is known for her previous work of painted abstractions of delicate arabic calligraphy imbued with a pop sensibility. Here she presents new works on canvas, bowls and platters. Inspired by Turkish pottery designs, her flowers and patterns morph into long tongued and sharp toothed demons who seem intent on gobbling up the world. Conceptual artist, Rosemarie Fiore is presenting her large scale gun powder and pigment works on paper which are made by exploding fire works inside cardboard tubes. The colorful spheres with their halos and particles allude to images of the cosmos and were inspired by the shocking and awful beauty of the bombs exploding over Baghdad. The fireworks themselves, like mini bombs, cause great concussions, sparks, and smoke in the creation of these works. Michael Oatman, an obsessive collagist, is here presenting his piece "Small Blanket" which appears at first to be a nighttime sky filled with snowflakes until upon closer inspection the flakes are revealed to be made up of dozens of war planes fashioned into mandala like patterns. The term blanket here puns on snow, security, and the Pentagon's favored bombing strategy. Susan Graham makes replicas of army pistols out of sugar and lacy porcelain reinforcing their role as objects of desire and yet subverting their usefulness as tools of violence. William Stahl's richly detailed and jewel colored paintings on copper depict tiny landscapes in the process of being conquered and pillaged. Judith Raphael who is known for her paintings of girls in the poses of classical mythology is here presenting the iconic image "Pandora/Caught Red-handed", of a young girl wielding an open red box surrounded by war planes. Her modern Pandora mimics Roman sculpture and forebodes our own rashness as a culture in opening the Pandora's Box of war. Limor Gasko who paints figurines, silk birds and kitsch statues with the liveliness and sympathy of portraiture, here presents softly lit new icons alluding to Mexican retablos. "Dog with Saint" a poignant image of a saint who's bloodied wounds are being licked points to a gentle and healing alternative to our present international adventures. Lucy Fradkin mimics the naive frontal drawing style of the self taught sign painters she admires. Her charming large works on paper present idyllic images of interracial couples surrounded by birds in a utopian vision of a future where we "can all just get along".

Tolstoy's philosophical doctrine of non-violence, had a profound influence on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King encouraging pacifism as a political tool for social change. Then as now, political wisdom scorned pacifism as unsuccessful and dangerous and peace crusaders were vilified as utopians and threats to national security. For Tolstoy, generals and kings delude themselves when they presume they determine the outcome of battles or the courses taken by nations. He contended that personal events are more profound than public ones. In War and Peace Tolstoy turns the romanticized concept of war as glory on its head. He begins the book with the build up toward war depicting its uniformed parades and pomp, and then slowly and subtly describes the unraveling of the heroic with a realistic view of battle as unglamorous actions performed by ordinary men.