LA CIENEGA AREA

A first local solo show for French artist Francis Limerat offers painted wood wall constructions, done in the drawing-in-space spirit of Alexander Calder or Alberto Giacometti. Some are shaped like arches, others like triangular pitched roofs, still others echo the rectangular, flat format of a canvas. The works call up shelters of some sort, limned not in pigment but with long thin strips of brightly mottled wood. All have thin armatures, brightly colored geometric planes and random grids and screens woven into tight architectonic wholes.

We’re reminded of cityscape variations on the Cubist theme of simultaneous viewpoints. We seem to see all--the facade of a building, a window, a staircase or a fire escape superimposed on one another. The works convey none of Cubism’s emotional neutrality, though; the artist definitely wants these “shelters” to function iconically as well as formally. (Jessica Darraby Gallery, 8214 Melrose Ave., to Thursday.)