LA CIENEGA AREA

Over the last decade, Karen Chapnick has been represented in many distinguished shows of fiber-and-tapestry artists--and one can see why. She is an impeccable technician with a good eye for color.

Like quilts or tapestries, Chapnick’s wall panels impress us with their immense output of labor. Using high-grade twine dyed in a variety of colors, she gathers it in bundles and braids it into large and small rectangular panels.

The centerpiece of this show is “Suite” (1981). It consists of 10 panels, smallest at extreme sides and increasing in size as they move toward the center. Colors shift in tonal waves, making for atmospheric effects that move across the systematic structure of rippling lines.

These compositions also bear comparison to pattern painting of the ‘70s, but don’t convey the same seriousness about uses of decoration. Thus, they are simply palatable but unchallenging objects.

Connie Utterback has also exhibited in many fiber group exhibitions, although her work on view has an entirely different look than Chapnick’s. She uses small quadrangles of of sheer, lightweight nylon, soldered together into larger sheets that resemble perspective geometric drawings.

This sounds simple enough, but Utterback complicates the image by overlaying sheets, creating a labyrinth of lines and open spaces colored in pastel tones. It’s enough of an idea to sustain one or two works, but certainly not an entire show. (Ruth Bachofner Gallery, 804 N. La Cienega Blvd., to Feb. 2.)