"New Work, " a collection of 16 oil-on-canvas paintings by avant-garde artist Ming Lowe, opened May 28, 1988 at the Ming C. Lowe Studio/Gallery in Palm Desert.

Consisting of mostly large-scale works executed in black and illuminated by glowing color, much of "New Work" evokes the finality and mystery of death.

In "Guatemalan Prayer," ambiguous figures stand before phosphorescent candles in a solemn mystical tableaux. "Mass Burial," a small work in black and gray, features a group of people standing in the darkness before an open grave, the cadaver strewn with shimmering lime powder.

In "Double Burn," which was inspired by the funeral of Lowe's long-time friend Paul Butterfield, a photograph of the deceased is held over his body and burned in symbolic cremation.

The death theme continues with "Portrait of Gary Gilmore" and "Final Moments." In "Portrait," the head and shoulders of a hooded man face the spectator, while a white opening over the face reveals only darkness. "Final Moments," also inspired by the Gilmore execution, features the same hooded figure seated in a mysterious stone room, his feet shackled.

A photograph illegally shot inside the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, was used as background research for the large "St. Francis of Assisi's Tomb," in which an altar laden with candles continually rekindled by monks since St. Francis' death in 1226 glows in the darkness.

In "Robert," New York multimedia artist and designer Robert Medici is pictured bare-chested and painted black, his mouth covered with gauze, reaching upward in oblique perspective through yellow bands of light.

The jarring, electric yellow-and-black "Headlights" depicts a man's agonizingly contorted face as if in a final scream or gasp.

Lowe's deliberately disquieting personal view of death, "New Work" reflects 20 years of introspection and self-imposed isolation in the desert. She has had one-woman shows consistently since 1978, and her work is in private collections in London, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Spain.