GALLERIES

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.) and Sharon Mizota (S.M.).Compiled by Grace Krilanovich.

Continuing

Judy Fiskin: Guided Tour “Guided Tour” is Fiskin’s latest film, an 11 1/2 -minute journey through a pedestrian exhibition of America’s painting and sculpture that is almost entirely installed on city streets, in shopping centers, at neighborhood crafts fairs, in souvenir shops, on commercial plazas -- virtually anywhere that is not an art museum or commercial gallery. It looks into the deep, perhaps bottomless chasm between the art world and the rest of the world. Witty and poignant, her work succeeds in part because it never grants a privilege to one side over the other. She plainly lives in both, and the art world and the rest of the world are both revealed to be irrevocably nuts (C.K.). Angles Gallery, 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; ends Sat. (310) 396-5019.

Mark Grotjahn: Seven Faces Grotjahn’s obvious source for this body of work is Picasso’s 1907 Cubist masterpiece, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Specifically he focuses on the ferocious women’s lozenge-shaped eyes, linear scarification and mask-like bearing. His predecessor invoked tribalism as something powerful but remote from industrial civilization, which needed to be recovered. But Grotjahn makes paintings that refer to Modern art as if it were itself a totem. Forget nature, these paintings say. A conscious experience of culture of any kind is what identifies our clan, and art is a material sign of spiritual kinship (C.K.). Blum & Poe, 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; ends Sat. (310) 836-2062.

Robert Mallary The works on view at The Box date from the ‘50s and ‘60s. “Harpy” is a tattered, winged figure constructed out of resin-soaked tuxedos stretched over thin steel rods. In large wall pieces, Mallary used resin to shape sand, gravel, wood and cardboard into monochromatic abstractions somewhere between painting and sculpture. His use of resin eventually made him ill. A selection of works from the ‘80s reveals how he continued to explore the same motifs using only torn and folded scrap paper. The inverse of his sculptures, they are intimate and white instead of looming and dark (S.M.). The Box Gallery, 977 Chung King Road , L.A. Noon-6 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; ends Sat. (213) 625-1747.

Michael Reafsnyder: Put It There: New Paintings and Ceramics Reafsnyder continues his delirious engagement with painterly hedonism. Drizzled, dribbled, smeared, scraped, scuffed and slippery swipes of bright, wet, acrylic color engulf the canvases like nontoxic spills. The paintings are nearly upstaged by a half-dozen modest ceramic sculptures sitting quietly on plywood pedestals. Where the paintings are fast, the sculptures are slow -- hand-built slabs of clay that unfurl and unfold like dense bouquets of jungle blossoms or exotic undersea creatures (C.K.). Western Project Gallery, 3830 Main St., Culver City. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; ends Sat. (310) 838-0609.

Travis Somerville: A Portion of That Field? Somerville continues his exploration of the history of race and representation in the U.S. with a suite of paintings, drawings and sculpture that address minstrelsy and the legacy of slavery. Unfortunately the works’ evocation of 1980s-era pastiche and their blunt treatment of this nuanced subject matter fail to add anything new to the discussion (S.M.). Charlie James Gallery, 975 Chung King Road, L.A. Noon-6 p.m., Wed.-Sat.; ends April 17. (213) 687-0844.

John Stephan: Spheres of Light For 30 years before his death in 1995, Stephan painted nothing but discs: perfect circles inscribed on square canvases in a variety of colors and intensities. At once austere and trippy, the paintings play games with our perceptions of space, but their clear colors and relentless simplicity also give them a transcendent, almost spiritual air (S.M.). Louis Stern Fine Arts, 9002 Melrose Ave., L.A. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; ends Sat. (310) 276-0147.

Ed Templeton: The Seconds Pass Templeton’s photographs were all shot from a moving car. He focuses on pedestrians, who wait at bus stops, cross the street and move past shops both tony and shabby. Once in a while you find yourself stranded in a parking lot, or looking over at Jay Leno in a souped-up roadster, or puzzling over a transient incongruously walking along a freeway shoulder. Perhaps it’s the distance between the moving, auto-bound photographer and his mostly slower subjects relegated to foot, but most everyone in the pictures seems somehow bereft (C.K.). Roberts & Tilton , 5801 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; ends Sat. (323) 549-0223.