LA CIENEGA AREA

By now Bay Area artist Tom Holland appears thoroughly transformed from an unusually gifted abstract painter to a rather ordinary Neo-Expressionist. An exhibition of 18 recent works retains his trademark combination of painting and sculpture made of joined flexible materials like sheet aluminum and fiberglass that either stand free or hang on the wall as reliefs.

In his last local showing, in 1983, Holland introduced jack-o-lantern-like cutout silhouettes. Now he employs stylized heads in profile, vase and bottle shapes that manage to allude simultaneously to ancient Greek art and Cubism. In the fashion of the day, the modern reference is not to great modernism but to obscure third-rank foot soldiers like Andre Lhote. Neo-Expressionism is comfortable with mediocrity.

Holland has not just changed his imagery, something has happened to the actual painting. Color remains barely superior, still rising to the sweet green pastels of “Fleet” and the dark sonorities of “Mate.” But application has become so slurred and casual, it borders on the careless. This painting lounges about as if it doesn’t like itself much. (James Corcoran Gallery, 8223 Santa Monica Blvd., to April 27.)