La Cienega Area

New York sculptor Joel Shapiro forges a curious blend of Minimalism and geometric abstraction in a series of new pastel drawings. Staunchly traditional modernist work that poses formal questions concerning line, mass, color and space, the drawings--all untitled-- offer few clues as to how Shapiro intends that they be interpreted, and that theoretical ambiguity is simultaneously chic and worrisome. It’s always hip to play it close to the vest, yet there’s something vaguely fretful about these stark compositions.

Shapiro’s basic recipe involves one or more squares of intensely saturated color, tilted and cocked at odd angles, while floating in a smudged white field. Jaunty, almost recklessly self-confident, the work exudes the breezy good taste of a cover for the New Yorker magazine, yet one can’t help suspecting that there’s something academic and perhaps a bit pedantic afoot. (Asher/Faure, 612 Almont Drive, to Feb. 11.)