BEVERLY HILLS

Sheila Elias’ mixed-media paintings are purportedly about urban life, the glitz and glitter of the city. Drawing upon the gestural vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism, she uses the industrial materials of throw-away culture-- Day-Glo metallic paint, silver foil, Hollywood souvenir shop toys and found garbage.

Unfortunately, Elias’ lack of conceptual ingenuity and her anything-goes mishmash of compositional cliches has produced works that are, at best, paeans to kitsch. By wallowing in the worst excesses and empty rhetoric of Neo-Expressionist and junk assemblage aesthetics, Elias has enlisted vacuous style to the cause of decorative overkill. Insofar as banality successfully communicates banality, they make ideal bedfellows. The best that can be said for this work is that form and content are in perfect sync. (Stella Polaris, 445 S. Beverly Drive, to Nov. 22.)