CLEVELAND, Ohio – Visual arts aficionados know that semi-realism in still life work is what captures imagination in time. Acclaimed artist and printmaker Patricia Zinsmeister Parker has that mastered.

Her work is the subject of a new exhibition “The Painter’s Painter” at Bonfoey Gallery, which opens Thursday, Nov. 14, and will be on display through Sunday, Jan. 5. Bonfoey is at 1710 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.

Parker, a former adjunct professor at the University of Akron School of Art from 1978 to 1998, was the first female painter to exhibit work in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s “The Invitational: Artists of Northeast Ohio,” an exhibition honoring regional artists.

Her work “The Yellow Table” is also part of the permanent collection of CMA.

Parker’s solo shows also have bowed at major museums and universities throughout Ohio – including a major retrospective at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown.

Her paintings are represented in collections of the Akron Art Museum, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institution) and Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, where she’s a founding member.

Parker is known for her innovative approach to abstraction (“narrative abstract expressionism”) inspired by the likes of Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne and Georgio Morandi. Parker’s still lifes are memorable in that same way, while also challenging conventional perspectives in an organic way.

Admission to the exhibition is free. For information, contact Bonfoey Gallery at 216-621-0178 or [email protected]. bonfoey.com.