Santa Monica

Susan Moss bases her “Pond/Frond” paintings on the idea that 20th-Century man is too busy to appreciate the details in nature. “We haven’t time for deep emotional introspection,” she says in a statment about the work, going on to explain that her “out-of-phase landscapes are a guide to a sublime and spiritual place.” Moss is assuming an awful lot here. While one doesn’t take issue with her opinions on the harried pace of modern life or the healing properties of art and nature, exactly how these hysterical paintings function as a tonic to those ills remains a mystery. Moss has the shrill sense of color of a graffiti artist and favors Pollock’s philosophy of technique; just make your way to a canvas and emote. While this troglodyte approach may suffice for the rare truly gifted genius, in lesser hands it results in run-of-the-mill rantings of misguided individuals harboring the illusion that their Angst is of interest. While one could spin Abstract Expressionist castles in the air about the surface tension, spatial depth and energized brush strokes in Moss’ paintings, the best that can honestly be said about them is that they’re highly decorative. (Boritzer/Gray Gallery, 3110 Main St., to June 4).