Like a formal dinner party, the orchestration of a group show of contemporary art is no easy task. Decisions of who to invite and where they'll be seated can bring chaos or harmony --- have painting and photography reconciled their initial difficulties enough to play nice? Will a boisterous multimedia installation steal the thunder of meeker works? Rochester Contemporary's Upstate Invitational 2007 brings five regional artists to the table, and in doing so inspires a patently unique conversation.

Occupying RoCo's front window are the mixed-media works of Rochester artist Mahine Rattonsey. Rattonsey explores notions of motherhood and the body as a home by replacing the glass panes in weathered windows with her own three-dimensional glass sculpture. In "Essence I & II," a uterine form is cast into translucent but textured glass that is held within a painted wood window frame. Exiting the frame is a fallopian tube, rendered in ominous dark grey glass. This, and all of Rattonsey's sculptures, adroitly summarizes the often uneasy interplay of women's roles as mothers, daughters, partners, and individuals.

The visual scream of Dusty Hebrig's prints grabs the eye next. Hailing from Syracuse, Hebrig's images recall the word paintings of Ed Ruscha. But where Ruscha's words whisper, Hebrig's attack. Blood red splatters clash with figures who blurt hard-edged text --- "Shut It," "That's Mine," "Wasn't Me," "Turn Around" --- that left me alternately chuckling and ready to brawl. But it is Hebrig's understated installation "Expansion" that is the standout. Sheets of handmade paper form a column illuminated from within by fluorescent light. Each sheet features scattered outlines of human figures, while a long, multi-digit number crosses above. Moving around the column, the sheets become more opaque, leading the viewer to dwell on overpopulation and its effects.

Jason Smith represents Buffalo with oil paintings as well as plaster and wood sculpture. His painting "Season 5" features a simple radio sitting atop a stack of colorful and expressive squares. Emerging from the single speaker is a field of pink, overlaid with red hearts and looking like a sugary valentine to music, or perhaps radio's yesteryear. Smith's presence is defined by dozens of plaster sculptures, all mimicking the ubiquitous form of the iPod. There are many to be found in groupings around the gallery; all are made of plaster with the iPod "screens" featuring various paintings and objects. I initially bristled at yet another critique of iPod culture, but a conversation with RoCo programming director Elizabeth Switzer revealed that Smith's ideas extend a bit further than a simple cheap shot at technology. "So much of contemporary art is moving toward clean, slick digital presentation," said Switzer. "To see all these roughly textured iPod forms with abstract paintings and objects on the screens is a great juxtaposition to what is usually expected of today's work."

Carrie Will of Syracuse channels the ache of loss and the ensuing search for comfort into her color photographs. After losing her mother, Will sought solace in the crafts her mother taught her and began wrapping lengths of magenta thread around tree branches that had lost their leaves. The photographs serve to commemorate these small gestures of empathy, and the sincerity of the idea breaks my heart. However, these images deserve to be released from their traditional white mattes and black frames, and their size could easily increase to envelope the viewer just as Will's thread wraps the fragile branches. This is beautiful work, but a more refined presentation could make it transcendent.

Despite a saucy title, Rochesterian Anne Havens' "Sleeping Around" series of plaster heads focuses not on promiscuity, but on the figure of the sleeper as a stand-in for the artist, both literally and metaphorically. Havens admits in her statement that she is an insomniac, and the heads are manipulated to suggest various states of sleep. Several are broken and held together with wrapped wire while one luckier head rests soundly on several cushy pillows. Her work "Remember" recalls the trick of tying a thread around ones finger as a reminder. Featuring a row of plaster fingers tied with multiple strands of cotton rope, the piece turns this simple act into an obsession suggesting that the litany of tomorrow's activities will obliterate any chance at a good night's rest.

Erudite and fluid discussion among all guests is the goal of any gathering, but can it be achieved in a contemporary art scene where vastly disparate ideas and materials clash and converge? While the five artists in this installment of the Upstate Invitational series make tremendously different works, they share common ground. Each adds a clear and direct voice that cuts through the din of conversation that is contemporary art in Western New York. As such, each will reward those curious enough to listen.

Upstate Invitational 2007 | through April 8 | Rochester Contemporary, 137 East Avenue, 461-222 | Wednesday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. | www.rochestercontemporary.org