LA CIENEGA AREA

For a young artist to introduce himself to the world in an ad for Rose’s Lime Juice is a questionable ploy, but that’s exactly what James Mathers did. Mathers is the cute young man sporting paint-spattered work duds whom you may have noticed nursing a Rose’s cocktail in last year’s print ads. In light of the fact that Mathers wasn’t above selling his name to Rose’s, his work is surprisingly substantial.

Painting as though he were icing a cake, Mathers slathers the canvas with juicy slabs of color, then etches images into this thick surface. He favors explosive bursts of color and his paintings fairly jump off the wall with frenetic activity. In “Nijinski’s Coil I & II,” a pair of paintings done from a photograph by Diaghilev, he conveys a palpable sense of the rushed precision of ballet by combining the fragmented perspective of Cubism with the supercharged exuberance of Neo-Expressionism. “Broken Membrane” echoes the zigzagging networks of lightning bolts that typified work by the late L.A. artist Don Sorenson, while a four-canvas series titled “Guided Visualization” is like a graffiti artist’s rendition of Michelangelo’s “The Creation.” It’s very pretty work. A tad flashy and trendy for comfort, but skillfully composed and executed. (Gallery 454 North, 454 N. Robertson Blvd., to Feb. 19.)