Santa Monica

A current show of Nam June Paik’s lovable, sophisticated robots fashioned from vintage TV sets features an early video installation, current video sculptures and prints.

“Alexander Graham Bell,” is a robotic effigy of the inventor made from antique TV cabinets modified by Paik’s electronic wizardry to flash computer synchronized images related to the telephone. They spin, dissolve and shatter into colorful kaleidoscopes that make the fanciest electronic special effects look like child’s play. Conception and craft are impeccable: each contour and knob of his funky found objects is selected for its formal impact. Flickering video imagery makes alluring color compositions, a bit like electronic action painting. The content when you catch it, paints a wry, humorous portrait of Paik’s subject. And all the while, the boxes spoof the hypnotic, predigested and propagandistic side of the boob tube.

By comparison, the early work looks minimal and subdued. An installation from the ‘60s is handsome. Two dozen television sets rest on their sides atop pedestals in a darkened room. Each transmits one flickering band. The first blue line is vertical. At each station the line changes color and inclines a bit more, tracing the trajectory it might follow as it falls from a horizontal to a vertical axis. Like all of Paik’s work, the piece is gracefully mesmerizing and conceptually rigorous. By suggesting motion across space, he investigates the concept of time, links art and science and reminds us of Muybridge’s multi-frame photos that formed the cornerstone of motion pictures.

The prints that greet the viewer are the weakest link in an otherwise excellent Paik update. (Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, 1547 9th St., to Feb. 10.)