Visitors take in “objects laying around” by Katarina Burin on Saturday at Anthony Greaney in Somerville. (Photo: Claire Ogden)

“Objects laying around,” a solo show of artist Katarina Burin’s work, was given a warm and crowded welcome Saturday at Anthony Greaney, a small gallery space run by Greaney out of 438 Somerville Ave., Ward 2 (in the same complex as New Alliance Gallery).

Burin’s show is fun and fresh and irreverent. The exhibition combines precise, geometric architectural renderings with oddball, food-inspired sculptures that look exquisitely edible. For Burin, the gouache-and-graphite drawings came first in the artistic process, inspired for this body of work by a recent trip to Greece. That influence is seen in the show’s color palette – primarily pastel, with a few splashes of red here and dark green there. One drawing has gorgeous red panels, based on a real wall Burin saw in Greece that was caked with years and years of color.

The show has few labels. In lieu of a press release, Greaney commissions creative essays from colleagues and friends. One by George Liu gives little away but conjures a feeling that says it all: “We come across things in the world that we love so much we want to eat them, make them part of us. But if we eat them, we lose them, so we are stuck with the problem of wishing to eat and look at the same time. Katarina Burin recuperates this loss. She is able to make sculpture out of the imaginary elements lying around in our heads, little shrines for and against consumption.”

Works by Katarina Burin at Anthony Greaney. (Photo: Claire Ogden)

In a world of exhibition labels that hit you over the head, Greaney’s approach is commendable and capacious, giving ample room for the works to stand on their own.

The closing date for “objects laying around” is yet to be determined (potentially May 11). Since Greaney runs the space on top of a full-time job, the exhibition timing runs on a more unpredictable schedule than the usual commercial gallery. But that’s what makes it so fun. He has all the best parts of an artist project: It’s DIY. It’s unpredictable. And so it’s always a pleasant surprise. 

“Objects laying around” by Katarina Burin at Anthony Greaney, 438 Somerville Ave., Ward 2, Somerville. Saturdays and most Sundays noon to 6 p.m.

Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to [email protected] with the subject line “Behold.”