La Cienega Area

Perry Araeipour’s paintings are simple--three or four thick horizontal bands of pure, dark matte color, which, at times, seems almost monochromatic. Each color is painted on its own canvas and the canvases are joined or separated by various widths to create the final painting. The eye travels over the color trying to determine black from near black or searching for the source of the impression of green within a “red” panel. Along the way certain panels gain and lose weight, appearing to cut into the wall or float away from it slightly. If some of the subtle, dark-on-dark visual effects recall Ad Reinhardt’s black paintings, it’s mixed with Sol LeWitt’s appreciation for strict system.

Cool and intelligent, the paintings are consistent with Araeipour’s search for disciplined structure that eliminates ego. Oddly enough, however, the color is getting rich, almost luscious. The red is the deep iron of soil, the violet black is somber as twilight. All these earthy colors give the horizontal bands a vague landscape flavor that have nothing to do with art’s manipulation of color and space. But they do make it a less abstract and more tangible experience of environment. (Kiyo Higashi Gallery, 8332 Melrose Ave., to August 5.)