We're living through the toughest time of year, weather-wise. The skies are gray, the temperature is cold, and summer seems to be eons away. But Bleak Beauty at Koplin del Rio—which closes on Saturday—finds the beauty in that sense of bleakness, pulling together minimally-colored black and white works of more than a dozen artists. David Bailin's used charcoal and coffee in "Burnt Field" to compose a piece that resembles a faded memory. It's really easy to get lost in the bleakness of Krisna Nidorf's inky black abstraction in "Black Mug, Sleeping States 3" or the spindly trees in Robert Wade's photographs. While sometimes color is the antidote to winter's overwhelming neutralness, the answer is often to lean into that darkness. Bleak Beauty at Koplin del Rio does just that. by Jas Keimig