The Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London will open on Saturday an art exhibition by Power Boothe, a professor of painting at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, where he served as dean from 2001 to 2010.

The show, “Nothing, Then Everything,” is on view through Aug. 4.

It brings together more than a dozen of Boothe’s large-scale abstract paintings in dialogue with his smaller canvases and works on paper, which explore the artist’s work and process. The show also surveys the shifts and the threads that run through the artist’s works over five decades of painting, with energetic, colorful, and bold canvases, as well as more quietly compelling ones. One section focuses on the artist’s drawings, showing framed works on paper as well as sketchbooks full of vivid compositions that visitors can see firsthand.

Boothe has works in many public collections, including the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The artist, who was born in California, lived and worked as an artist in New York City for many years before moving to Connecticut in 2001.

The museum welcomes the public to attend the opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Members are admitted for free, and non-members are $10. RSVP to (860) 443-2545 ext. 2129 or email info@lymanallyn.org.

The Lyman Allyn, located at 625 Williams St., New London, is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. (Call 860) 443-2545 or visit www.lymanallyn.org.