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There's no doubt the Internet has made the world a smaller place. If you have a computer and modem, you have the world at your door.

But it also works the other way around.

At least that's the lesson learned by Josh Hogan and Nicole Capozzi, co-owners of BoxHeart Expressions, the Bloomfield art gallery that each year hosts an international art exhibition in January they call "Art Inter/National, Here and Abroad."

After each exhibition, the couple posts images of the works that were included on the gallery's Web site, www.boxheart.org, as well as a call for entries for the next one. And, well, people notice.

"Some of the artists that applied for the first time said that they have been watching our gallery over the years through our Web site and have liked how it has grown," Hogan says. "That blew us away, that people noticed."

This year, which marks the fifth "Art Inter/National" exhibition, brought in entries by 60 artists from nearly a dozen countries, which Hogan and Capozzi whittled down to include 49 works by 27 artists from eight countries. And although the show has grown in size as a result of international interest, it also has grown in other ways as well.

That is not only because of the quality of works on view, which has improved significantly, but also the variety. Where else in the region at the moment could one find an art exhibition that includes everything from blown-glass vessels to chainsaw sculptures?

Both are included here, and, surprisingly, both are by locals: The blown-glass vessels are just two of several unusual and rather ingenious works in glass by Adam Kenney of Greensburg, and the chainsaw sculptures are well-hewn versions of turtles and a gargantuan dragonfly by Joe King of Champion.

Other interesting work by locals, Pittsburgh artists all, include two large-scale semi-abstract mixed-media canvases by Gabrielle Jesiolowski that pit man vs. nature, a no-doubt Edward Hopper-inspired painting by Adam Grossi that features a lone figure in a coffee shop, and a puzzling abstract acrylic painting by Sam Kolmen so full of texture it will make one wonder just how he made it.

The international entries are where the work really shines -- not only with the work of German fiber artist Petra Voegtle, whose three silk paintings won the Best of Show award, but also with that of the runner up, Reinhardt Sobye of Norway.

Voegtle's three pieces -- "Mesopotamia," "Maya" and "Celts" -- are painted silk quilts, multi-layered and collaged to incorporate symbols and symbolisms that relate to their titles. They are particularly notable because all three works include the symbol of the "tree of life," even though they depict images and symbols from different eras of human civilization.

Sobye's works also are collages of a sort, digital photographic manipulations that combine very real imagery into almost unbelievable scenes. The most fantastic is "European Poetry," which features a World War II fighter plane going down behind a barn.

Other intriguing works by artists from foreign countries include two highly stylized interior paintings by Marie Denise Jean Baptiste of Haiti; an abstract expressionist, almost cartoonish, painting by British artist Ben Young; and two minimalist-style paintings featuring lone figures on vibrantly painted backgrounds by Argentinean artist Mariano Cinat.

There are also a number of works included by artists from around the United States. In many cases, they either smack of the regional influences from the place each artist hails, or they reflect national trends in contemporary art.

An example of the latter is two small paintings by Chicago artist Michael Wille -- "Circus (Rome #37)" and "Maximux (Rome #38)" -- that echo the current trend in abstract painting that favors pattern and repetition.

As for regional interests, Arizona photographer Brian Fabean's digital print "Sedona 3/100" is an obvious reflection of place, as is Minnesota artist Mary Lingen's vibrantly colored, modernist-inspired landscape painting "Backyard in Fall 2," which hangs in one of the gallery's storefront windows.

Also in the front window are two more, equally vibrant landscape paintings by Joan Schlough of Wisconsin. Her paintings are particularly worth noting for the elaborate hand-carved frames she has created.

Finally, it is important to make mention that the exhibition also includes two intricate, semi-abstract etchings by Russian artist Vladimir Zuev, who was the Best of Show winner in last year's "Art Inter/National."

As in all of the previous years, the Best of Show winner is awarded a solo show that follows the next "Art Inter/National" exhibition, which means that next month, visitors to the gallery will find 115 more etchings by the artist in his solo show titled "The Force of Tone."

And what's more, Zuev himself will fly in from Nizhny Tagil, Russia, just for the opening of the exhibition on Jan. 31. How's that for proof that this exhibition, and this gallery, is gaining international attention?

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