Stuck at home during the pandemic, the painter Gretchen Scherer found inspiration in houses—not her own but the historical English houses that are now museums. “With the homes,” she said, “there are stories of the people who lived there.” For her second solo show at Monya Rowe Gallery, Scherer has reimagined the interiors of these estates-turned-museums. She paints the famous rooms—from places such as Belton House, Sir John Soane’s Museum, and Attingham Park’s Picture Gallery—with new and witty curations of the masterworks in each museum’s collection. (In The Hidden Cabinets of Sir John Soane, made in 2019, one of her own works is in the picture.) While none of the paintings include people, Scherer lets light—coming in through doors and windows—suggest the presence of former inhabitants. —Jensen Davis