La Cienega

A Matter of Time: Time has always been an unspoken element in Lari Pittman’s symbol-laden paintings. Sifting through various phases of cultural history, he has consistently wedded abstraction to decoration in search of the vigor of life. This current crop of paintings uses stylized Victorian silhouettes and spindly architectural pipe dreams to achieve imagery as complex and brash as any he has done. Jampacked as they are, images are also less abstract, narrative more explicit.

Exploring duality, the series called “beloved and despised, it continues regardless” is a dense amalgam of ideas riotous in color, pattern, form and humor. In it, Pittman links life with all the creative juices--from primordial seas to spit and semen. These are strange yet improbably strait-laced images that convey the passion life has for creation while denying death’s finality.

As recognizable as much of the refined symbolic imagery is, Pittman’s overlaying of readable information and pattern continues to give his paintings a frenzied energy that borders on nonsense. Up and down are frequently random assignments, color draws the eye around like a pinball machine. Once acclimatized to the pyrotechnics, there is a rewarding wealth of symbolic meaning waiting to be deciphered. It may be more readable this time out, but the tale is rich enough that it doesn’t suffer from being more clearly spoken. (Rosamund Felsen Gallery, 669 N. La Cienega Blvd., to March 10.)