ART REVIEW : A Telling Journey Through ‘Jackson Country’ : His works were widely viewed during the neo-Expressionist frenzy in the early ‘80s. But these days his paintings, on view at Newport Harbor, seem dated.

In the Bay Area, during the height of the neo-Expressionist frenzy in the early ‘80s, Oliver Jackson was one of a bare handful of black artists (including Betye Saar and Raymond Saunders) whose work was widely shown. Jackson’s huge, colorful, gestural canvases with floating figures were popular among viewers and were reviewed respectfully by local critics.

Respectful is the way I feel, too, seeing his work again years later in a five-piece show of recent paintings at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (through Feb. 20). I, frankly, can’t muster more enthusiasm. His style seems dated, and an underlying sentimentality weakens his painterly humanism.

A decade ago, the spacious, floating territory of “Jackson country” often looked like an especially cushiony region of heaven. Circular groupings of sprawling or curled-up figures who danced or played musical instruments gave the paintings a feeling of unity and celebration.

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Although the works in this show are not joyous--angular, repetitive brush strokes, bursts of gummy impasto and figures in cramped positions suggest a fearful restlessness--the paintings are leavened by the uplift of bright color and symbolism.

“Untitled (8-10-92)” looks like an aerial view of two black boys, sleeping or crouching near a naked white figure burrowing his head in his arms. Hints of other miscellaneous limbs can be discerned in the grayish, unspecific background, which suggests a homeless encampment. A lily--symbol of rebirth--grows at the lower edge of the canvas. The flower recurs in “Untitled (6-10-93),” in which a prone purple figure with twisted legs and out-flung arms serves as the focal point.

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The weakest works on view--an untitled triptych made late last year and in early ‘93--incorporate collage, a medium Jackson hasn’t used for two decades, perhaps with good reason. His choice and arrangement of the collaged materials--a small beaded purse, a printed paper wrapper and numerous large canvas scraps--seem labored and uninspired.

It is possible to read post-Los Angeles riots content into the canvases. Altered by Jackson’s brush, the letters on the wrapper now spell out such phrases as “yield al la” and “moved I see,” and the red paint in the second work has a bloody, suppurating appearance.

Yet it takes an extraordinary vision to make collage look fresh today, after so many strategies have been tested and exhausted. The energetic warmth of Jackson’s brushwork doesn’t seem to translate to the business of moving objects around in visually and conceptually evocative ways.

* “New California Art: Oliver Jackson” continues through Feb. 20 at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Admission: $4 general, $2 for seniors and students, free for children under 12, free to everyone on Tuesdays. (714) 759-1122.