SANTA MONICA

A couple of years ago Bay Area abstract painter Tom Holland defected to Neo-Expressionism, to the consternation of his admirers. Now he has redefected to abstraction again. Such flip-flops, like the case of the KGB man who came over to our side and then decided to go home, are confusing and raise questions about the defector’s convictions and motives. Well, fortunately art and espionage are still somewhat different and what counts is that Holland’s move has put him back on more secure ground, although something troubled still haunts the work.

The 20-odd relief paintings and painted sculpture on view have let go of Neo-Ex figuration but not of its fascination with obscure past modernist styles. This work wafts with thoughts of, say, the old color Cubism of Delaunay. It echoes modernist beginnings in big cut-out comma shapes and in raw, gritty color schemes. Considering Holland’s painterly virtuosity of yore, works like “Lami” and “Necker” seem almost perversely dissonant with their purposeful excesses of the strident and the saccharine. The price paid in suavity is partly compensated by a revived air of innocence.

Tom Holland was always too good an artist to have changed merely for the sake of fashion. Somehow this group makes the activity of recent years seem like a quest to rediscover the Grail of art’s old-time religion. It’s always tough to find a piece of the true cross. (James Corcoran Gallery, 1327 5th St., to Jan. 3.)