SANTA MONICA

Denny McCoy’s current show has the look of work by a very young artist who hasn’t sorted out his direction. Instead, it’s the work of a 42-year-old who’s immersed in exploration. Among the 35 pieces on view, McCoy (a) paints heads as emblematic motifs on turbulent fields of thickly brushed pigment, (b) spews out an angry narrative about trying to sell a story to “60 Minutes,” (c) juxtaposes minimally inflected rectangles of color with silhouettes or phrases, (d) drops ink on paper, letting it spread into black “skies,” and (e) superimposes paintings on advertisements and containers for commercial products.

We don’t need another logo artist settling on a trademark and turning it out by the dozens, but the confusion afoot in this exhibition makes it impossible to determine the artist’s intent, much less say anything definitive about it. Neither does the show seem to be a reaction to the “tyranny” of a single style; apart from a few recurrent motifs, the strongest connection among the exhibited works is a lack of resolution and conviction.

There’s a tough guy trying to beat his way out of this work by tossing off obscenities and taking vague political stances about advertising as pornography. But there’s also a lyricist lurking in the background and--more obviously--a conceptualist who is trying to figure out how to juxtapose dissimilar elements and make them add up to something.

Unfortunately, none of these attitudes shape up well enough to point the way to McCoy’s future. The best we can do is tune in next year to see if all this poking around has been productive. (Angles Gallery, 2230 Main St., to July 18.)