Santa Monica

Joe Andoe makes painting vital again. He pushes past resuscitated art neo-isms and tired appropriation techniques to explore the capacity of art to represent and convey meaning. Andoe’s dark tactile stain images of oak leaves, pears and arching tulips are pretty basic. The stark, simple images call to mind Donald Sultan’s tar-and-lemon paintings and seem at once naive yet highly sophisticated. Andoe shapes the fruit, leaves and stems with the smooth gesture of a finger wiped through dark pigment. His spontaneity recalls Zen painting as does the biting irreverence of the artist’s signature featured prominently on several works. But it is the earnestness of the images, tempered by the acknowledgement that the artist is at core both subject and author, that gives the work its intriguing air of round-robin philosophic discussion.

Sharing the gallery are two canvasses by Christopher Brown. The most intriguing is “Custer’s Button,” a large blue branching tree trunk form dotted with yellow and black globes. Each hovering orb glows with a soft halo like a Christmas tree going nova. Not much to go on but it is powerful.

Li Lin Lee is a process artist whose sanded spray paint images recall the abstract biomorphic forms of Kandinsky. Most of Lee’s paintings are dual panels where an amoeba ribbon twists into abstract DNA strips. Frequently these shapes are juxtaposed with sensual color rips or strips of abstract flame that suggest birth or change. Lee’s surfaces are lush. Sanded to near oblivion, the color sits on the wooden panels like a vividly preserved stain. As small Romantic panels analyzing the process of metamorphosis, they have a gentle energy. (BlumHelman Gallery, 916 Colorado Ave., to June 3.)