La Cienega Area

We know Terry De Lapp as a respected L.A. art dealer. We remember him making rather than selling art when he exhibited exotic animals placed in front of matte pastel-colored stripes. The work was OK as far as encyclopedic description, but the why and wherefore of it stumped us. This time, De Lapp takes up the brush again and makes his symbolic message so blatant and repetitive that the formula reduces to silliness.

Collectively called “Bad Things in a Good Light,” one small canvas after another features objects--like flowers--that are supposed to strike us as beautiful, innocent and fragile, next to other objects--like hand guns, high-caliber rifles and enormous hunting knives--intended to suggest violence and destruction. In “Glass Vase and .12 Gauge,” a poorly painted square vase holds a an equally unconvincing bouquet, while a gun that registers a deadpan visual and emotional impact rests alongside it. The problem is that none of the weapons strikes us as particularly scary, and none of the florals strikes us as particularly delicious. It’s all just so-so realism that misses its intended symbolic mark by yards.

In “Garbage and Gladiolas,” both conception and craft get downright sloppy. The matte, broadly brushed painting technique that served De Lapp well in the animal studies has been set aside for thick, wet-looking pigments expressionistically applied. Only in “AK-47 and Tiger Lily,” where the strident uninflected orange of a single flower plays against an ebony backdrop, is there any believable tension. (David Stuart Galleries, 748 1/2 N. La Cienega Blvd. to Dec. 2)