Santa Monica

Jon Swihart is noted as an artist of ambiguous quasi-religious narratives in miniaturized magical detail. New work inspired by a six-month residency at Monet’s estate at Giverny marks a radical departure from his usual ambiguous, quasi-religious narratives. These are small, Old World landscapes in jewel-clear colors. For a taste of another place, and a more romantically perfect world, Swihart gives us postcard-sized views of vast green fields skirting low hills under rolling clouds. Here the only trace of humanity is rain water in a wheel rut. Obviously influenced by the verdant beauty, these paintings are a stunning and straightforward paean to Monet’s countryside.

Randall Lavender paints romantic, neoclassical, awkward nude figures that tumble limply in space like gentle parables about alienation and the undefinable pain of modern Angst. Delicately colored, the flesh is luminous but the bodies often suffer from faltering anatomy as toes bend at impossible angles and muscles hang on arms like shadowy afterthoughts. The inaccuracy in the figure is annoying, but Lavender still manages to make the form a dynamic part of the composition. The most impressive pieces place curled, floating bodies on shaped panels suggesting vaulted doorways or portions from ceilings of Renaissance architecture. This structure lends his scenarios, symbolic of moral challenge and virtue, the much needed weight of culture and history. Tortue Gallery, 2917 Santa Monica Blvd., to Oct. 7.)