Wilshire Center

Sexuality and art, order and chaos mix it up with gusto in Tom Leeson’s newest large painting, “The Intrusion of Fantasy Upon Reason in the Late Afternoon.” As usual the image combines stunning perspective computations and careful figurative spatial renderings with enough free-for-all silliness to make the visual joke seem completely offhand. But this time the layering of ideas and images seems more complex and makes more art oriented asides to the audience. Leeson’s trickster cherubs who make inspiration such a fun event are developing a libido. A disrobing studio model has got them darting around like mischievous gnats painting chairs rainbow colors or shooting rubber tipped arrows at Cezanne paintings. The air gets literally thick with angels in a kind of Toon Town meets Dutch Masters parody of the annunciation.

Smaller wall pieces in the show are like insets omitted from the larger painting. They play the same technical games of perspective, tilted space, interlocking form and shallow rounded relief but don’t try for witty substance. These are props minus the play or still-life studies of clutter in the living room. Like Leeson’s sculptures of toy sized steel folding chairs with croquet mallets, they read more as visual amusements than statements. Roland Reiss might be able to weave a morality play out of their miniature careless arrangement but in Leeson’s hands they come off as wee mementos to a good time. (Ovsey Gallery, 126 N. La Brea Ave., to Nov. 11.)