Be Bloody, Bold, and Resolute

Among Contemporary Art Month’s more cryptic offerings, Melinda Martinez Studio’s “Be Bloody, Bold, and Resolute” pairs Albert Alvarez and Alejandro Augustine Padilla—kindred spirits who treat deep issues (from mental illness and anxiety to religion and war) with a dark and heady dose of surrealism. Although bound by often-troubling themes and subject matter, Alvarez (a Rhode Island School of Design alum) and Padilla (founder of Beacon Hill’s Studio Fantomas) approach painting and drawing with starkly different styles and techniques. With little more of a teaser than a “checklist” of clues (butcher paper, black ink and “bloody red pen”) and a drawing of a balding clown licking a bleeding bird, the duo’s latest comes cloaked in the same ominous cloud of mystery as past collaborations, namely the recurring show “Blood Work.”