LA CIENEGA AREA

Tracy Grayson’s problem is that he can’t seem to make up his mind whether he is critiquing painting or shamelessly exploiting it. Like many current conceptual painters, he tries to change the meaning of conventional romantic or abstract landscapes by adding odd motifs, a cut-out window or floating decorative motif.

A work like “Constellation,” with its twin compass-point motifs superimposed on a muddied image of a factory landscape could be seen as a graphic subversion of illusionary perspective. Yet other landscapes, minus the motif, attempt to stand on their own as autonomous images: alluring paintings with sublime and seductive overtones.

Unfortunately, the very mechanisms Grayson uses to debunk the language of old and modern masters can be turned just as readily on his own work. What he needs to do is push these critical contradictions to their limits, so that his works can transcend their current limitations as safe illustrations of a trendy theory. (Michael Kohn Gallery, 313 N. Robertson Blvd., to May 31.)