Santa Monica

Fouling Out: Some ideas may sound promising but simply don’t hold up when they’re worked out in two or three dimensions. Andrew Winer, a CalArts MFA student who graduates this year, hit on the notion of translating the markings on gymnasium floors into sort-of-abstract paintings. It’s the sort-of that gets him into trouble. In various formats, large and small, Winer reproduces--in a generalized, painterly way--the look of those blond wood plank floors and adds arcs and lines of primary colored paint indicating the boundary lines for court sports. Alas, the pieces are too stubbornly veristic to read as abstract paintings, and too visually uninspired to hold the attention on a purely abstract plane.

The court markings do hold another potential level of interest: as sign systems understood by the players of a game but meaningless out of context, or to anyone who doesn’t know the rules. But again, something is amiss. I think the problem is primarily that the markings in these works are so fragmentary, they no longer necessarily signify anything. I’m not a sports fan, but I think it is fair to say that--lifted out of their ultra-specific gymnasium context--a red arc or a yellow circle could mean all sorts of things--or nothing at all. Winer’s is a thoughtful, well-meant strategy, but it doesn’t score enough points to claim a mental victory.

Five other young artists are showing conceptual pieces in the rear gallery under the group title, “Jeopardy.” This work is by turns baffling (Christopher Dolan’s untitled pieces), smart-alecky (Lak Prasasvinitchai’s “Parasite Unite No. 6 Forced (Anal)ysis to be Clamped onto a Peter Halley Piece”), gimmicky (Andrew Short’s “Los Angeles County Museum”) and rather simple-minded (Laurel Katz’s “A Table for Uneven Heights”). But Mara Lonner’s pieces have a sprightly charm. (Krygier/Landau Gallery, 2114 Broadway, to March 17.)