ART : Marks on the Earth : ‘Unnatural Landscapes’ conveys five artists’ provocative views of the environment.

Landscape painting is not what it used to be. At least, not for some Los Angeles artists who contemplate landscape from the confines of our urban surroundings.

There remain some open vistas in our area. And these city-dweller artists can probably still recall images of beautiful, open panoramas in not only historical but contemporary landscape art. But they have refused to let humankind’s marks on the earth escape them or their art. Almost 30 works conveying five artists’ personal views of our environment are on display in the show “Unnatural Landscapes” at Century Gallery.

“The artists questioned me about the title of the show. They said, ‘Why do you want me for a show titled “Unnatural Landscapes”?’ ” said gallery director Lee Musgrave. “The concept grew out of looking at landscape artists who were using landscape as an excuse for something else--social, human and political concerns. The landscape seems to be only a stage setting for other things. But actually the political and social concerns are related to the landscape.

“Using the word ‘unnatural’ has caused people to think, to ask questions. If I had titled the show ‘Contemporary Landscapes,’ that wouldn’t have happened.”

Zolita Sverdlove’s abstract oil paintings and monoprints present local scenes in expressive strokes of bold greens, blues and yellows. One is immediately drawn into the monoprint, “Nite Sky,” with its wispy clouds and lights in the form of yellow and orange dots. It conveys a delightfully mysterious feeling that negates any uneasiness with the development that generates such a night sky.

Though the man-made arches in the monoprint, “The Two Arches of the Colorado Bridge,” dominate the image, there is still a vitality to the foliage beneath the arches. In contrast, the clutter of buildings in the oil painting “L.A. Skyline IV” loom large and heavy on the more open spaces below.

The burning fires of Jerome Sander’s five “Window Series” paintings bring to mind the media images of Kuwait’s oil fields after the Persian Gulf War. Three of them are direct references to those fires. Of the other two paintings, one depicts a grassland fire, the other industrial pollution.

These images leave no doubt of Sander’s concern for the earth’s survival. Yet, the fire and smoke of these works are seen through arch-shaped, painted windows, leading some viewers to find religious and romantic overtones in the paintings.

“These particular events, even seen secondhand through the eye of the camera, are spectacular, awesome, and strangely beautiful,” Sander writes. “They are fraught with ecological implications and remind us all too clearly of civilization’s destructive tendencies that threaten to alter the balance of the earth’s ecosystem that supports life as we know it.”

A photograph of a portion of a freeway, taken from a moving car, has been mounted in the center of most of Seta Injeyan’s canvases. Emanating from and surrounding each photograph is an expressionistic burst of feeling in response to the picture.

Injeyan’s work conveys the benefits of freeway construction, yet she also illustrates “the conflict between freeways and how they cut right through the earth,” Musgrave said.

Linda Arreola’s unframed, mixed-media / collage on paper works incorporate photocopies of photographs, street maps and aerial views of the area along the L.A. River. These rough, almost technical presentations ably represent the unnatural character of the concrete channel.

Dean Detrick’s watercolor landscapes are completely abstract, rather geometric compositions of earth tones with hues of blue at the top. The uninitiated may not recognize them immediately as landscapes, but “what he’s doing is a well-established intellectual exercise,” Musgrave said.

“He goes to the landscapes, but makes them into unnatural landscapes. Linda, Seta and Jerome are focusing on the unnatural you can see with the eye, but he’s focusing on the unnatural within himself.”

WHERE AND WHEN

* What: “Unnatural Landscapes.”

* Location: Century Gallery, 13000 Sayre St., Sylmar.

* Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Ends May 13.

* Call: (818) 362-3220.