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BEVERLY HILLS

Michigan sculptor Michael Hall descends on Los Angeles with a solid aesthetic bang that leaves us thinking, “Yes, that’s just fine, so what else is new?”

He shows two room-filling abstract sculptures and three small maquettes. He calls them “Waltzes” despite the fact they bear strong resemblance to trash dumpsters. “Krakatoa/Waltz Crater” is orange, black and dusty and looks like a dumpster turning into a factory roof. It’s so big there is no objective viewing distance in the gallery. “Waltz One” introduces a chimney-like opening and is white, brown and rusty.

There is nothing wrong with this work. In its way it is both virile and tasteful but it is also a decorative compromise between the design-oriented abstraction of, say, Tony Smith and the authoritarian monosyllables of Minimalism. It’s good, sound predictable academic modernism. (Stella Polaris Gallery, 445 S. Beverly Drive, to Dec. 31.)

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