Installations, paintings and works on paper exploring themes that shift between subjects and perspectives alternately intimate and immense is almost of trademark of Brian Hitselberger.

The Athens artist often works in a series. His modestly scaled paintings and drawings employ detailed mark-making, dense layering and unexpected relationships between form, content and material. It yields works that strive for optimism without simplicity, and wonder without resolution.

Hitselberger’s references are wide-ranging, a reflection of the reach of his interests: Caspar David Friedrich, Rajasthan Tantra painting, medieval star charts and Japanese textiles are all referenced, as well as the writings of Annie Dillard, Italo Calvino, and Gaston Bachelard.

Now his new exhibit “Forgetting the Self” will be on display from Aug. 20 through Sept. 17 at the Bob Owens Art Gallery on the top floor of the Hoag Student Center at the University of North Georgia Dahlonega campus.

Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 3-7 p.m. Sunday at 82 College Circle in Dahlonega.

In “Forgetting the Self,” the images are part of a body of work exploring themes of anonymity, intimacy and the relation of these ideas to the spiritual.

He is currently Assistant Professor of Painting and Printmaking in the Art Department of Piedmont College.