Santa Monica

Who would have thought that Robert Hudson, good old Mr. Funk, would ever make sculpture that looks as though it was ordered up from an engineering company. In this show of work from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the Bay Area artist is largely in thrall to screaming color and souped-up industrial imagery (although, typically, he fabricated the pieces himself rather than send them out to a factory). Sometimes he worked in a genial, free-wheeling conceptual vein or tried his hand at drop-dead minimalist gestures. Over hits and misses alike hangs the unmistakable air of ‘70s puzzlement about what a work of art ought to be.

“Window”--a cement window frame with distractingly literal glass panes sitting bolt upright on lengths of lumber--looks like it began life as a properly minimalist Primary Structure but got bogged down in overly zealous craftsmanship. But “Still Works”--Hudson’s own arc welder, strapped onto a glass plate etched with a grab bag of phrases--has a wry appeal. The idea seems to be that some things just keep plugging along on one level or another, whether they are cliches or buzzwords or tools--or tools pretending to be works of art.

New York artist Ross Neher, making his solo debut here, is rethinking the physical process of oil painting. He sets down layers of luminous, glazed color with half-buried astronomical and landscape references--layers that hang slightly over the edge of the canvas like a skin that could be peeled off. These accomplished works offer memories of the rich tonalities of Hudson River landscapes, yet Neher’s stress on the physicality of paint and the perceptual enigma of form are very much of our time. (Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, 2110 Broadway, to Nov. 11)