Hollywood

Pieced together out of bits of paper and cloth, Tom Stanton’s recent work ranges over lots of territory--landscapes, takeoffs on 18th- and 19th-Century painting and even fake rock specimens built out of paint. The best of the landscapes is “Alice’s Marsh,” with glimpses like film clips of golden plants, turgid blue-yellow water, a blue passage weirdly reminiscent of a Chinese landscape painting and a general effervescent air of sunsets and fireworks. The takeoffs feature telltale poses (a flirtatious Cupid, say), brown sludge (presumably masquerading as heavy varnish), period costumes or (in one instance) a vague triangular mass that brings to mind a heroic venture by Gericault. Stanton’s own painting is frequently too murky and vague (dare we say lazy?). But there is a lot of brain power here and some intriguing byplay, like the faintly Goya-esque audience watching what appear to be theatrical goings-on in “Rassan.”

Wayne Entice performs trash-compactor duties on rag paper, charcoal, matchbooks and small stones, turning out dirty-white mats with irregular borders. Some of the matchbooks are left whole but “purified” of printing as if accidentally put through the washer, or the matches are diminished into small stumps. One piece ornamented with a dusty cigar and a gob of orange gum is called “Tar Baby.” Another title, “I’ve Met My Matches IV,” suggests that the faint Jasper Johns-like aura of an arrangement of three matchbooks in closed, open and semi-open positions may not have been intended by the artist. (Space, 6015 Santa Monica Blvd, to Nov. 28.)