Timothy Lowly’s large-scale portrait Temma on Earth shows his young daughter, physically and mentally disabled since birth, lying helpless in the dirt. Most haunting is the expression on her face: mouth gaping open and blank eyes staring at something—or is it nothing?—that we can’t grasp. In “Gaze: Vision, Desire, and Difference in the Frye Collections” (through January 4), curators Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker and Donna Kovalenko put the emphasis on looking—how we look at art, how those being depicted direct their own eyes. The show also contains works by Gabriel von Max, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and other artists. In Steven Assael’s photograph IRT #7, a subway candid, unsuspecting New York passengers have no idea of our scrutiny. Other subjects include seductresses and smitten fools. Most interesting among them are those who stare right back at us, meeting our gaze. They’re looking at a voyeur—in other words, you. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, www.fryemuseum.org. Free. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. ERIKA HOBART

Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m. Starts: Aug. 31. Continues through Jan. 4, 2008