At first glance, Laurie Lee-Georgescu's prints seduce you with vibrant color and exquisite draftsmanship, but a closer look takes you into an unsettling realm of human discord. In her inaugural solo exhibition at 440 Gallery, the artist will show her recent woodblock and linocut prints. The work is replete with scenes of war or disaster: a home scene disrupted by a soldier in a living room; tanks escorting school children; a house slanted and partially destroyed by some natural disaster posed against a bucolic landscape. Lee-Georgescu colors her finely rendered narratives in bright reds, deep indigos, lemon yellows and lush russets. These artistic choices play up the uneasy juxtaposition between beauty and tragedy, innocence and horror, and the sanctity of family life breached by external upheaval. Unresolved Conflict opens at 440 Gallery on April 3 and runs through May 4, 2014. There will be an opening reception on Friday, April 4, 6:00-9:00 PM. Several events related to the exhibition are planned, including a hands-on workshop for children.

Lee-Georgescu's source material is primarily drawn from the evening news. She alters images from newspapers and photographs, editing out the defining elements or details that identify the where and the when of the event. With the specific context removed, she says "The images become both more mysterious and more universal: one sees only the relationship between unknown figures placed within an action." In Welcome the Abyss, for example, men hang desperately from the undercarriage of an ascending plane, the quintessential image of refugees fleeing every war.

Lee-Georgescu employs several printmaking techniques with both Eastern and Western origins. She uses Japanese moku-hanga (wood block printing) best known for the ukiyo-e genre associated with Hiroshige and 17th -19th century Japanese masters, and obakashi, a technique of blending colors into gradients on the carved wooden printing plate. She also applies Western techniques making linocuts and woodcuts, as well as experimental modes such as acrylic and watercolor washes painted on the paper before printing.

Lee Georgescu graduated from Cooper Union with a concentration in painting and printmaking. She studied Japanese techniques with Yasu Shibata, master printer for Chuck Close; another printmaking mentor is photogravure printer Lothar Osterburg. In addition to working in other print media, such as silkscreen, etching and photogravure, Lee-Georgescu also does color wash painting. In 2011, her work was in Four on the Verge, a curated exhibit at 440 Gallery of four outstanding artists under the age of 35. She has exhibited in New York City galleries, has coordinated and designed public murals projects, and in 2012 joined the 440 Gallery.