Wilshire Center

Moving from well-known scenes of Chicano life into the realm of baroque fantasy is a somewhat bumpy journey for John Valadez. But you have to admire the sheer courage and operatic vigor of recent pastels grouped under the title “Condenados” (The Damned).

The better pieces retain some link with modern times and the artist’s own style but use Old Master images as a flavorful seasoning.

On a grand scale, the show’s title work presents a vision of Spanish colonization and religious tyranny of the New World’s native peoples. Dusky, fleshy nudes cower below a hulking figure with a sword, elaborate headdress and swollen blue tongue; tiny scenes of brutality and the subservient treatment of Indians by the Catholic clergy trail across the sky. Valadez’s own voice seems to be smothered by the weight of art history in this piece as well as “Fall of Babel,” a painting that apes Baroque models.

Much fresher is the intimate image of “Mad Manny,” a middle-aged man in deluxe surroundings who is stopped in mid-gesture by an angel painted in a wonderfully unreal lacy style (perhaps taken from an old engraving?). The conjunction of old and new, everyday and otherworldly makes a fine bouquet. (Saxon-Lee Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., to Feb. 17.)