Santa Monica

Los Angeles artist Cecilia Davidson is interested in the symbolism of birth, creation and death and in Botticelli and Max Beckmann. But her paintings and mixed-media monotypes are bland fare, executed in the laissez-faire style that passes in some circles for latter-day Expressionism. She favors large prettified faces of women who stare blankly into space--Botticelli unhappily combined with Sophia Loren and magazine models--juxtaposed with Mediterranean landscapes, zaftig earth goddess figures and Greek temple fragments.

The feminist spirit that flavors the work becomes gushy and superficial in light of the vacuous faces and uninspiring repertoire of imagery. Some pieces veer off uncertainly into quasi-mystical territory without bringing the viewer along--a liability for those who lack Beckmann’s gifts. Davidson’s version of “The Last Supper,” for example, features a skinny, mournful-looking nude whose head tilts, Modigliani-style. She extends her stigmata-marked hand to a table laden with sacramental objects and a mega-kilowatt candelabrum. Poor thing, is she is a revisionist version of Christ? A symbol of diet-conscious, oppressed womankind? It’s hard to know, or care. (Christopher John Gallery, 2928 Santa Monica Blvd., to Jan. 6.)