Peter Howson is an honored artist in the United Kingdom but not so well known in the United States. This should change, once the word gets out about his current solo exhibition, Redemption, at Flowers gallery at 529 West 20th Street in New York City. It takes courage in this day and age to mount a show where the centerpiece is a quartet of canvases, depicting the Harrowing of Hell, but Howson is one artist of faith who does not shy away from engaging the central issues of Christianity in his paintings and drawings. In each of the four works on view from his Hades series, the central figure of Christ can be seen emerging from a hellish swarm of gargoyles and grotesques, a focal point of peace and compassion in an anguished, post-apocalyptic landscape. My favorite work in the show is Howson's rendering of the mocking of Christ, Outcast, which brings to mind the powerful Passion studies of the Late Medieval Dutch Master, Hieronymus Bosch. This radiant portrait of redemptive suffering will stay with me through Holy Week and long after. The show runs from March 30 through May 5. For more information, contact: newyork@flowersgallery.com. (John Kohan)