Wilshire Center

German artist Thomas Ruff shows color photo portraits of anonymous European students recruited off the street. Considered a conceptual artist, Ruff buries the idea deep in the obviousness of his 6-foot formats. These are expertly shot and developed photos of attractive young adults. Only one older fellow with dark shadows under shifty eyes, a mole-like bespectacled face and huge ears fails to strike us as a statement about the vitality of youth.

The photos do look like students’ I.D. shots writ very, very large. The word identificaton implies that some information is imparted, and perhaps the fact that we learn so little about these people is Ruff’s way of saying that while the physical distance between countries, cultures and people continues to shrink, the psychological distance increases. (Glenn-Dash Gallery, 962 La Brea Ave., to Oct. 14.)