LA CIENEGA AREA

Referring to himself as “an inventor in the spirit of Rube Goldberg,” Philip Garner is best known for his customized, life-enhancing inventions. In his two books--the “Better Living Catalog” and “Utopia . . . or Bust!”--he exhibited a keen satirical edge in affectionately sending up modernist man’s obsession for technology and progress. In “Sensationalism,” Garner’s debut solo exhibit of drawings and devices, this combination of New Deal determination and Eisenhower-era idealism has now given way to a darker, more cynical ambiguity, and the work is stronger for it.

In “Observation Booth,” for example, Garner has metamorphosed a Magritte-like coffin-cum-lectern into a concealed surveillance device, complete with optical peep hole, radio, clipboard and Lite beer: every home comfort for the budding snoop. Similarly, in “Roadside Attraction,” a sinister diorama reveals a one-creature “mini zoo,” where a gathering crowd ogles a huge mouse--a simultaneous dig at amusement-park commercialism, modern biology run rampant and the public’s need for sensational gratification.

The work’s edge derives from its enigmatic mixture of idolizing the banal (romanticism, organized religion, consumer culture) along with a strong sexual undercurrent, rooted in Madison Avenue advertising language. In Garner’s hands, “Ideal Home” Utopianism and perverse fetishism become two sides of the same middle-class (read, profit-motive) coin. (Functional Art, 9000 Melrose Ave., to March 15.)