ART REVIEW : Show Features Decade of Michael Todd’s Work

In Michael Todd’s hands, a piece of wire, a plastic scrubbing pad and a ball of steel wool could be stretched and scrunched into wall-hung sculpture with an offbeat, wispy allure.

A colony of these fizzy little pieces from 1976 hangs in Chapman College’s Guggenheim Gallery in a show of various directions the veteran Los Angeles artist’s work has taken in the past decade. For those familiar only with Todd’s circle-based sculptures with attached geometric or free-form shapes, the range and deftness of his various approaches may come as a surprise.

In “Ronen No. 21” of 1979, two stubby crossed-steel elements on a rusted rectangular sheet of metal look like weapons slung across a squat warrior’s chest. An upper corner of the rectangle tips forward slightly and a smaller rectangular “sidekick” crouches behind it. The effect of grave bulk with a rhythmic charge--like a portly old tap dancer--is unexpected and appealing.

“Kakebana,” an A-shaped wall piece of 1981 concocted out of white-enameled steel rods, has a wide, easy stretch built into it, like the spokes of a broken umbrella.

Tall and svelte, “Carmen Miranda V” is the centerpiece of the exhibit. Its metal components of various sizes and textures collide in space with the easy, linear grace of torn papers in a collage. Resting on mismatched “legs,” the 1987 piece flaunts a knobby vertical element flattened into a lilting, wavy silhouette and a delicate oblong screen with honeycomb-shaped openings.

“Western Mountain,” a small bronze made this year, derives its allusive quality from the shape of a low-lying sheet of green-patinated bronze terminating in a rush of stalactites. A white blob suspended over it suggests a ridge of hoarfrost forming in icy air.

The exhibit also includes a rather awkward mock-up of Todd’s studio.

A small table holds miscellaneous cardboard and foamcore scraps from which he makes the cast parts of his sculptures. A pile of art books offer mute homage to a trio of seminal modernist sculptors: Julio Gonzales, David Smith and Anthony Caro.

Sketches, molds of sculptural elements as yet unwedded to an actual piece (one looks like a bathroom fixture encrusted in white cement) and other odds and ends are also on view to suggest Todd’s “creative process,” according to a press release.

Unsurprisingly, these materials don’t yield much insight into that peculiar and mysterious process, involving so many large and small decisions about placement and size and direction. A viewer would have to be led clearly through the stages of one particular piece to begin to understand Todd’s working methods.

Still, the show is welcome in its breadth and selectivity. If some pieces seem too pat and complacent, lacking the fine juggling of those mentioned here, the show as a whole is a tribute to the quiet, pacific outlook of an artist who tends to look to the East for his abiding influences.

GUGGENHEIM GALLERY

CHAPMAN COLLEGE

Sculpture by Michael Todd.

Through April 29

333 N. Glassell St., Orange

Open 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday

Admission: free

Todd will give a free lecture at the gallery on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Information: (714) 997-6729