LA CIENEGA AREA

Looking at Terry Chevillat’s art is rather like having a cocktail party conversation with a young person who’s eager to make a good impression. He drifts from subject to subject with ease, convincing you that he’s literate and presentable but telling you nothing of his convictions or passions.

Chevillat’s current show is called “Clues” for no obvious reason, for it offers no mystery or intrigue. Instead the art safely touches all bases without covering any of them. Several large paintings are based on grids and assembled of multiple canvases, but the rigorous structure is ameliorated by soft color, brushy patterns and either an inset square of a realistically painted figure or a couple of butterfly shapes.

Why? Well, pastiches are in fashion now, partly because it’s a confusing time of coexisting styles and philosophies. Such juxtapositions can be effectively abrasive, but this work just looks arbitrarily indecisive.

Several painted constructions take off in yet another direction: decorative constructivism. Some of these mixed-media wall pieces suggest landscapes, overlaid with dowel “fences.” Others are sweet assemblages of gaily painted wood. Either way, they are slight vestiges of a tradition that has had all its edges rounded beyond recognition. (J. Darraby Gallery, 8214 Melrose Ave., to Feb. 10.)