At the Rockland Center for the Arts in West Nyack, New York, until April 8, The Map Show, an exhibition featuring several contemporary artists. The New York Times has a review:

The show presents the work of eight artists who make maps of one kind or another. Some use representations of the earth, on a flat surface, to broach issues of globalization and corporate multinationalism, while others plot information to create readable, ordered representations that communicate complex ideas about a person, theme or place. These, too, are maps of a sort.

At right, Adam Henry’s “A Few Things Have Happened #4,” a globe made from a crumpled world map.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Elise Wagner has an exhibition on at the Butters Gallery in Portland, Oregon, entitled Particle Maps. The Oregonian has a review:

Wagner, 41, seeks to interpret natural and celestial forces in her work — particle physics, astronomy, string theory — and the inherent duality of beauty and violence within them. Often, she incorporates hints of star maps and other cartographic elements, as well as blobs and swirls of microscopic action.

In her paintings, nature is sometimes sublime but more often destructive. The artwork seems to act, however subtly, as a reminder that the world is born from such chaos.

Until March 29. At right, “Particle Latitude” (2008).