Santa Monica

Abstraction is no fad for painter Sheldon Figoten. He’s been at it for about two decades and his tenacity shows. His shaped circular and rectilinear canvases fashion crinkled crepe atmospheres. Undercoats of slate gray modulate to white by successive, subtle layers or deep maroons are similarly subdued to heathery pinks. The works’ attractive, likeable appearance could raise suspicion, but a closer look shows tough technique biting off the gnarly major issues of modern abstract painting: how to capitalize on the expressive and formal potential of the straight edge, how to show rather than hide process, the dialogue between building up and effacing marks.

Figoten lays down pigment in compact, ordered rectangular compartments applied like the systematic vertical rungs of a ladder. His touch is more light than severe, letting edges melt and blend to end up with shimmery fields that are more lyrical than geometric. (Angles Gallery, 2230 Main St., to May 7.)