On the evening of Friday, May 27, nattily attired ladies and gentleman of a certain age, along with a smattering of artsy young hipsters, showed up for a member reception at the Monterey Museum of Art. After sipping Chardonnay and inhaling sushi and polenta bites soaked in olive oil, a group filed into the newly-renovated Frank Work gallery to listen to a dissection of the new exhibit, Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction, with the MMA’s new executive director, Mike Whittington.

Whittington, who had been helping coordinate the exhibit from afar, had arrived three and a half weeks earlier from his former stint as a curator at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. A dapper and articulate host, Whittington praised the Neo Mod works and the new space, saying that it was his opinion, and the opinion of the trustees, that “this museum has entered a new era.” He gave props to Diana Daniels, curator of Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum, where the exhibit originated, as well as Helaine Glick, MMA’s acting curator, who discovered the exhibit, and Vera Westergaard, the designer hired to work the exhibit into MMA’s space. “If you saw our former gallery, you know how absolutely extraordinary this was,” he said.

At Whittington’s urging, it was the first time in the museum’s history that an exhibit was enhanced with the talents of a professional designer. Later, Whittington promised that it won’t be the last time.

“Every large museum and most of the smaller ones have full-time exhibition designers on staff,” he said.

Changes include curving walls in the gallery, raised moldings, and the bringing in of natural light through a once painted-over circular window.

Whittington says he found Neo Mod to be particularly appropriate to announce the new direction he sees for MMA.

“The subject of the show is a fresh look at modernism,” he says. “It’s a show that’s deeply serious and also very playful.”

The playful quality of the exhibit seemed enhanced during the tour when  a staffer’s toddler drummed her heels on the wood floor and announced loudly, “I want to go home!”

Whittington didn’t miss a beat.

“A budding art patron,” he said dryly.

Whittington discussed the “coolly cerebral” qualities and later the “wild and unfettered emotionalism” of the exhibit, while pointing out the craftsmanship of the works. Rex Ray’s collage, “Theloschistes, 2003,” created with handmade paper and hand-cut shapes arranged just so, showed, Whittington said, “a superb level of craftsmanship.”

“If the work is poorly crafted, I find it unfinished and unsuccessful,” he said later.

Fred Slautterback’s “Giant Steps I, 2000,” produced by the artist’s own technique of working with layers of brightly colored plastic, was named for the John Coltrane jazz piece Slautterback was listening to at the time of creation.

“This is Jackson Pollock drinking with the big boys,” Whittington proclaimed.

Abraham Elterman’s luminous oil, “That Which Sustains, 2002,” particularly intrigued Whittington.

“There’s a tension,” he said. “It looks like something that you should recognize, but we don’t know what it is.”

Linda Meiko Allen’s “Hybrid V, (Angels & Monsters), 2001,” a collage of photos plus acrylic, molding paste and wax, also impressed Whittington.

“You can go deeper into the layers,” he said. “She’s also doing something playful, there are ghostly images of insects.”

Later, Whittington said that the metamorphosis of the gallery space is being reflected in the attitude of the staff and the patrons of the museum.

“The energy level and excitement has been renewed,” he said. “Both of those working together are creating the Monterey Museum of Art.”

The Neo Mod show runs through August 28. $5; $2.50/military and students. 559 Pacific St., Monterey. 372-5477.