SANTA MONICA

During his long career, Ken Price has sometimes run amok on ideas, but he has never deviated from a standard of exquisite craftsmanship. Whether creating strange egg shapes, suave variations on cups and saucers, ambitious adaptations of Mexican folk ceramics or rather silly narrative pieces, he brings them off like a master. In that sense, there’s no news in his show of 13 chunky painted ceramic sculptures that sit on white pedestals. But who can complain about an artist who adds a new wrinkle to his well-known technical facility while taking a fresh look at a familiar concept from his repertoire?

Essentially Price sets one blocky form onto another, so that the upper one is cantilevered or otherwise offset. While the base appears solid, a small “doorway” in the upper story reveals a hollow structure. After the clay sculpture is fired, Price lays on several layers of acrylic color--say pink over yellow over dark blue over turquoise--then rubs off part of the color to accentuate highlights of chiseled surfaces. The slit-like doors, usually framed by narrow, dark planes, lead into black holes of nothingness.

While Price has formerly used this offset, stacked form in sleekly faceted, brightly glazed pieces, the relatively organic appearance of his new group shifts it away from lapidary and into the vaguely spooky, Southwestern realm of ancient cliff dwellings or fortified retreats in desert outposts. At the same time--as forms for their own sake--these pieces have the weight of bronze and the blazing color of modernity. In other words, Price is in fine form, using his wit and finesse to create objects that are fascinating both visually and conceptually. (James Corcoran Gallery, 1327 5th St., to April 28.)