Santa Monica

In the mid ‘80s Charles Villiers painted a Mr. Potato Head everyman who wandered urban and desert landscapes with a direct and primitive appeal. His clever Duchampian sculptures threatened a function but had none. Current constructions merge large paintings with wood, bones, fake pears, fake fur and rubber. His painting technique has grown in sophistication and his visual lexicon is more complex, but the net effect is somehow less compelling and fresh.

Imagery includes a large, loosely worked takeoff of one of Van Gogh’s self portraits, precious little plaques with trompe l’oeil fish and shells studded with rhinestones (“Fish and Shell I”) and a whole battery of long-necked woman-creatures that wear fatigues, paint, contemplate archetypal shelters or smile demurely from carefully drafted heads taken from recognizable Renaissance and Mannerist works. Only in “Born Mammal” is there a glimmer of the personal voice that gave earlier works their resonance. (Natoli-Ross Gallery, 2110 Broadway, to July 1.)