Santa Monica

Cast fiberglass sculptures by John Duff are minimalist totems in the throes of a theoretical weight gain. Soft, undulating forms that put one in mind of damaged airplane propellers, Duff’s quizzical work is reductive in its stark simplicity, romantic in a number of other respects.

Encasing sheets of rich, saturated color in transparent fiberglass, Duff creates a picture window on the two materials as they aggress against one another, then further underscores the sense of an agitated process by leaving the surface of his pieces scarred with nicks and scratches.

The manner in which Duff presents his work moves it further away from the cool, clinical minimalist camp; jutting out from the wall with the ungainliness of young boys at their first high school dance, the pieces exude a user-friendly awkwardness that’s oddly endearing. The cherry on the sundae of this curious show is a small three-legged bowl with a hole at the center that sits on the floor in the middle of the room; it seems like the genie’s lamp that unleashed the other forms in the room. (BlumHelman, 916 Colorado Ave., to Jan. 14.)