This December is a quiet one in Chelsea, devoid of hot openings, hype and hoopla, but nevertheless a strong one for art. It is especially sweet to see veteran artists, whose craft we've long admired, finally get their due, intermingling with technically inspired young Turks.

Both are on view in "The Nature of the Beast" at Caren Golden, an exquisitely calibrated group show. Here the experienced Devorah Sperber, represented by McKenzie Fine Art, shows a spectacular shag rug "Jackson Pollock," which disintegrates into a "Hans Hofmann" when viewed through binoculars provided by the gallery. Lane Twitchell, from Artemis Greenberg van Doren, exhibits two haunting highway-scapes, each a steal at $2,000. And Dan Kopp, whose debut solo show opens at Silverstein Gallery next month, has coughed up his first truly great painting, by discarding his trademark space-alien stick figures for an aquatic meditation.

...If the idiots at the Whitney Museum were to include every artist in every show mentioned above, the 2004 Biennial would be a smash. Well, we can dream, can't we? -Charlie Finch