Santa Monica

Bogdan Perzynski is a Polish artist living in Austin, Tex. His work appears as a set of meditations on cultural stereotypes, global tensions, censorship and basic human urges. Smartly designed and clearly dry-humored, Perzynski’s four installations are slow to yield their meanings.

In “Skitseuphrenia,” the word is spelled out phonetically on four pennants. Blowups of engravings of Isaac Newton and Nicolaus Copernicus rest on the floor next to a real tandem bicycle (presumably a symbol for the mental disorder). Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy, is turned on his head in a kind of literal one-upmanship (his notion of the universe didn’t include Newton’s law of gravitation).

The point seems to be that major theories about the universe used to change slowly--the two scientists lived centuries apart--but we now live in an unsettling world of radical upheaval, particularly in the political sphere (the pennants--signifying the “sport” of warring factions--are blood-red). Nonetheless, the piece remains a kind of rebus in which each part stands for something but the separate parts don’t enhance one’s impression of the whole.

In “Pleasure,” dollar bills, dried leaves, tableware wrapped in red napkins, an animal silhouetted against a block of painted camouflage print and a trio of different dictionaries in glass cases seem to be calling attention to the conflicting interpretations that can be put on the notion of pleasure. One man’s meat is another man’s poison--but it depends who is labeling the poison. A group of prints delves into the same themes by combining drawn and photographic imagery. (Shoshana Wayne Gallery, 1454 5th St., to Feb. 17.)