Wilshire Center

Ron Linden’s new pieces take the solid roundness of a circle and whittle away at it from the sides leaving the remainder to ruminate on ideas of wholeness.

Several consist of one unpainted round wood panel cleanly sliced through by partial ellipses. The remaining flat shape resembles the head of a two-sided ax.

Each orb speaks in emblematic, even heraldic terms about monumentality and completeness. We wind up considering the significance of sliced-out sections in pieces such as “Study for Deadwood” or casting their absence in symbolic light, as in the political eulogy of “Rally.”

Linden’s work, with its manipulation of abstract, private symbols is intellectually complex and often hard to penetrate. In good post-modern tradition the objects reveal themselves to be involved in a self-conscious kind of discussion that states “I’m making art that talks about art, even while it deals with other issues.” Where this work proves most enlightening is in its exploration of perceived wholeness. The circle is used as both an opening and a passing phase of openness--framing and fragmenting constructed reality. (Ovsey Gallery, 126 N. La Brea Ave., to March 11.)