Santa Monica

David Novros is a New York minimal abstractionist who executes most of his ideas as murals or frescos. Past Novros projects have involved futuristic approaches to architecture and energy, while a recent piece commissioned for a corporate headquarters seems loosely structured in the manner of a sacred altarpiece. A Holy Trinity triptych favoring stained glass window colors (purple in particular), the piece seems intended to resonate in a lofty, decidedly religious way. But a photograph of the completed work in situ suggests that Novros fell a bit short of the mark; the finished mural looks like second-rate Diebenkorn.

These six slap-dash watercolor studies aren’t much to look at either, and one wonders why Novros decided to show them. They tell us little about how he hammers out his ideas, or the parameters of this piece. A classic Novros geometric abstraction from the early ‘70s is also on view, but some supplementary information as to how his early work relates to this new piece is very much in order. (Fred Hoffman, 912 Colorado Blvd., to Jan 14.)