Wilshire Center

Australia aboriginal artists tell fantastic stories about the long-ago doings of beasts and humans. Using the simplest of alphabets--constellations of tiny dots, relieved by curved and straight lines--these “dreamings” are quite irresistible.

Paintings couch mythic versions of history in minimalist patterns and muted color that inevitably remind the viewer of contemporary art.

Indeed, although these patterns were painted on the earth for thousands of years, their rendering in acrylic on canvas dates back only to the early 1970s. Although the basic units of the patterns are virtually identical, their deployment varies depending on the story, and each painter has a distinctive style--whether of machine-like identical dots or blurred big dots or tiny flecks.

Also on view are linear bark paintings of creatures whose bodies are ornamented with patterns reminiscent of weavings; a few small sandstone rocks painted with the real and imagined beasts of the Australian desert; and wooden statues with shrunken arms and long thin torsos representing the delicate Mimi spirits, who venture out only at night. The sampling is generous and the wall-label annotation, precise, detailed and charmingly presented. (Caz, 8715 Melrose Ave., to July 29.)