WEST LOS ANGELES

A two-person show reminds us of the post-Pollock days when every graduate school and loft was filled with paint-splattered abstractions designed to stand for impressions and experiences in the world. The show also demonstrates the range that such experiments can encompass.

Melinda Miller creates believable, energetic compositions that pit flat static areas of color fractured by animated black lines against gnarled, kinetic skeins of color. The strongest of these works are well thought out and balanced and have the difficult-to-achieve knack for referencing flesh, landscape and other associations from life without ever really describing these. Especially appealing are the smaller drawings.

On the other end of the continuum, Lucia Falkner’s works in the same vein struggle to not look jumbled and somewhat sophomoric. “Celebration” stands out, perhaps because she allows herself some room to work and forsakes the dark, muddied palette of other pieces. (Art Space, 10550 Santa Monica Blvd., to Jan. 26.)--M.D.