ART : Responding to the Issues : Works exhibited at the Finegood gallery consider various developments and dilemmas of life in Los Angeles.

When Maxine Levine and Margy Sievers decided to work together to organize an exhibit for the Finegood Art Gallery, they also agreed that they would present provocative art that reflects the issues facing Los Angeles after a tumultuous year.

These members of the Art Council of the Jewish Federation Council’s San Fernando Valley region--which is responsible for curating the gallery’s shows--have realized their goal by bringing together the diverse work of six local artists in the show, “L. A. Artists Respond.” It opens on Sunday.

Photographs by Dauna Whitehead and Ron Faranovich and an installation by Cyndi Kahn respond directly to the April riots in Los Angeles and their aftermath. The mixed-media work of Todd Gray and Greg Spalenka and paintings by Joel Nakamura consider more generally the economic, social, racial and political dilemmas confronting Los Angeles inhabitants.

Gray’s photo/text work, “Don’t Fade Me Out,” presents clear, declarative statements that address root causes of social unrest. The artist has made 18 prints of the same black-and-white portrait of a black man. Below his face, the image is fuzzy, fading out. As he rests his face in his hand, he is unidentifiable.

On almost every image, Gray has scrawled a message. One picture says: “It’s about class--not race.” The photograph next to it states: “10% of the population controls 80% of the wealth.” The one next to that, “Divide and Conquer.” The final photograph of this group reads, “Don’t fade me out--we’re all connected.”

Influenced by modern painters and folk art painting, Nakamura has created what he calls modern folk paintings. Figures devoid of references to gender or race are central to his boldly colored acrylic and oil works. Through them, he tells inventive narratives about the effects automation, AIDS, overdeveloped bodies and underdeveloped minds and homelessness have on individuals and our society.

Spalenka comments on life for residents in a housing authority project in his multilayered work that includes a map of a Los Angeles project and the face of one of its residents. The piece is accompanied by a statement from this resident that describes life in a public housing project.

The nine small, painted boxes supported by stands in Kahn’s installation represent an inward journey in search of an understanding of the complex, often conflicting feelings that the riots have generated.

One box holds a small photograph of a wall in the riot area marked with a declaration for peace. In another box, a photograph shows graffiti that calls for revolution. Another box holds a candle.

For Kahn, the candles in the installation symbolize both a meditative spiritual element and the destructiveness of fire.

“I like to work with contradictions,” she said.

Some boxes hold pictures of destroyed buildings in the Pico-Union area that she had known as viable businesses from her regular travels into the area to teach English to people for whom it is a second language. Although much that is displayed here is personal to Kahn, others should have little difficulty identifying with the concerns she brings up, including her posing the question of whether art can heal the city.

Faranovich also gives viewers a lot to ponder in his eerie, paradoxical black-and-white images of buildings demolished during the riots and National Guard troops in front of local gas stations and shopping centers.

Whitehead, a photographer who often shoots beautiful landscapes, was also moved to photograph riot ruins. However, her approach was anything but journalistic.

Using color film, she first photographed the rubble of burned and looted buildings. Then she reloaded the film and made double exposures, juxtaposing images such as a mansion in Beverly Hills, City Hall and a big “Stop” sign with the ruins.

“These photographs are about the fragility of our infrastructure and our lives, how everything we know is but a moment away from ruins and destruction,” she said.

“We’re really all one city, so what happens to one end happens to the other,” Levine said. “We can’t deal with problems unless we face them.”

“We want to raise people’s consciousness to think about where they live and how they can make things better,” exhibit organizer Sievers said. “It’s interesting having this show here in the Valley. People in many parts of the Valley feel isolated and protected. I’d like to point out to them that they’re not.”

Where and When What: “L.A. Artists Respond.” Location: The Finegood Art Gallery at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Center, 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. Hours: Opens Sunday with a reception for the artists from 2 to 4 p.m. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 9. Call: (818) 587-3200.