Wilshire Center

Daniel Kelly shows paintings that look like knobby molten lava dried to a hard finish. Appearing to be trapped inside this surface are heraldic, simplified images of animals. A benign donkey takes up most of a large canvas in “Polka Dot,” and a winged feline of chalky white and brilliant blue pigments looks like an aged fragment from the Ishtar Gate.

For 10 years Kelly has shared his time equally between the United States and Japan and a catalogue statement denies any ties to either Eastern or Western artistic traditions. His work looks like an effort to place himself in a broad context and shake stylistic pigeonholes. Kelly jumps from an effective prehistoric-looking bull in “Five Thousand Years” to voluptuous High Renaissance bust portraits in “Rex” and “Michael” to something that resembles an unfinished Pompeian wall scribble in “Suspension.” This effortful eclecticism backfires in enervated abstractions like “Standing Alone” that waste Kelly’s protean drawing gifts. (April Sgro-Riddle Gallery, 836 N. La Brea Ave., to April 6).