Santa Monica

John Valadez renders scenes of street life, domestic violence, sexual longing and appeasement in a bright, detailed, illustrative manner. A group of his pastel drawings and paintings on paper, mostly from the past eight years, reveals a sharp eye for detail but a too-easy acceptance of stale compositional devices and a disconcertingly conservative style for all the underlying pungency of his barrio- based subject matter.

“Empica” (1987) mirrors the disparate contents of a sidewalk stall--items of clothing, collapsible umbrellas, religious paintings. “Tony and Edie--The Guest Is Leaving” (1986) is a “still” from a hair-pulling fight in a middle-class living room between a miniskirted woman and a man wearing only swim trunks and a gold medallion. “Sidewalk Fantasy” (1986) features a broad-chested bum sitting on the sidewalk and a rear view of a woman whose underwear cuts patterns into the tight fabric of her clothes.

When Valadez opts for a still life--as in “Broadway Trash” (1985) with scudding bits of unrecognizable colorful debris, glimpses of commercial signs and a view of a wall--the results are too schematically “arty.” But, ironically, one recent Valadez painting venturing into juicier stylistic territory appears to have little to say about the Chicano experience.

“Dogs” (1988) is about trying to pin down the way something looks when it’s moving, the pulled-out, blurred contours of animals roaming free. A rush of colored spray fills in the background; it’s a dated device but plausible here to help emphasize the fleeting essence of this moment of everyday life. (B-1 Gallery, 2730 Main St., to Feb. 28.)