Santa Monica

Overdue Dahn: An overdue Los Angeles introduction to ‘80s work by Walter Dahn, a member of the Muhlheimer Freiheit group in Cologne, presents a shrewd, restless artist who seems to combine the sensibilities of Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol and the late Keith Haring. The work consists of big-scale, black-outlined images on painterly backgrounds, silk-screen paintings that take a broad view of the meaning of “culture” and small figurative bronzes.

In “Baselitz-Pop”--which has a lyrical background of mottled yellow and blue--a house nestles in the palm of a big outstretched hand. Below it, another hand holds an exploding house that has been dropped on a bomb--a reversal of ordinary happenstance paralleling Baselitz’s familiar habit of painting objects upside down.

Lone stick figures that masturbate or crumple into a Basquiat-like frenzy of scratchy black lines appear to be tense images of the artist’s own ego. Other images are embodiments of a deliberately naive view of an imaginary universe. In “Das Gute Siegt” (The Good Is Victorious), rays of goodness emanate from a figure in a towering African hairdo holding a heart-tipped spear. Silk-screen paintings fling elements of First and Third World civilizations together.

The bronzes are sensitively modeled pieces that speak simply and directly. In “Nachbar der Welt” (Neighbor of the World), a small tray holds a head with African facial features positioned between two globe-like spheres. At once plain-spoken and visionary, this work has an honest appeal. (Fred Hoffman Gallery, 912 Colorado Ave., to March 17.)