SIGHTS : Exhibit Puts Spotlight on Neon Art at Ojai Gallery : Show gives medium a chance to shine in all its rainbow colors and presents works that range from meditative to playful and garish.

By day, the gallery appears to be mysteriously cloaked in darkness, with shades keeping sunlight out. By night, bolts and tubes of glaring color turn the space into a garden of unearthly spectra.

It can mean only one thing: Neon art has come to Ojai.

Artists using neon, either as a primary material or in conjunction with other media, have their work cut out for them. The medium itself is a difficult one to tame, involving logistics of electricity and technology. Modes of expression tend to be limited to linear designs and unmodulated fields of loud color.

There is also the question of acceptance in an art world that hasn’t yet fully grown to appreciate the fine art potential of this fluorescent palette. To many, neon is a symbol of kitsch (whose mecca is Las Vegas), of commercial signage and of visual noise.

For the most part, despite such venues as the Museum of Neon Art on the Universal CityWalk and the opening up of attitudes toward what’s viable in art, neon remains an outsider.

And outsiders attract, which is the subplot of the current Neon Art show at the G. Childress Gallery, extended through this weekend. Curated by Jan Sanchez, a neon-wielding multimedia artist living in Ojai, this show involves art from the ranks of the Coalition of Light Artists.

Entering the gallery, the visitor is not struck by a strong cohesive sense of artistic purpose but by the vivid, weird, gaseous and, in a way, gaudy light.

What binds these artists is not so much an aesthetic mindset as an attraction to a specific, unorthodox medium. Attitudes vary. Some of the more playful art here cozies right up to neon’s rep for garishness. Other art steers clear of such an extroverted nature, going for a more meditative effect.

There is little empathetic thread, for instance, between the boisterous animal-based pieces of Michael Flechtner--which tend to scream for attention--and the subtle, landscape-oriented abstractions of Kunio Oshashi.

Oshashi’s works may be the most compelling of the show for their inventive redefinition and artful reworking of neon’s properties. In a work such as the Japanese garden-like “Rock and Tree Where I Want to Be,” Oshashi creates a sensitive blend of elements, finding a natural interaction between technology and poetic suggestion.

In “Untitled 2,” a sloping, bright-red ground plays host to a spindly, leafless bonsai tree, a bulbous blue form and contrapuntal lines raked across the “ground.” Such tranquil, non-representational use of neon is refreshing to see.

Flechtner’s art, on the other hand, appears more the work of a proudly vulgar American. Obviously highly skilled in the use of neon, Flechtner capitalizes on the commercial life of the medium, and his artworks seem to double as advertisements for their own cleverness.

“Hovercat” finds a cat hovering over a food bowl, in an apparent state of alarm or disquiet. The background shifts from red to blue, implying fickle feline temperament. A cat, lusting after a hot dog, is again the protagonist in “Hot Dog.” Here, the artist incorporates classical composition, Japanese and Greek symbols, Christian references and a poignant story about his late trucker father--nicknamed “hot dog”--to create a high fallutin’ fast-food allegory.

Flechtner is the mild-mannered prankster, eager to forsake art world sobriety and leave ‘em laughing. How else can we account for “Dinosaur Head,” a motion-sensitive kinetic piece that opens its gaping jaw every time you walk by?

Sanchez, whose works often seem like dream world stage sets, works a middle ground in which neon is not the sole focus of art, but just a complementary presence. “Summer Madness” is a multimedia tableau, a summer-night scene in a garden of gravel and steel, along with writhing neon tubes.

“People in Glass Houses” sits, in all its weird glory, in the middle of the gallery. A simple form of a house, its exterior is covered in frosted plexiglass and framed in neon, with enigmatic bursts of blinking colored lights inside.

Vocationally, Korey Kline is an engineer who works in research and development, specializing in pyrotechnics, explosives and rocket propellants. Science, clearly, is a motivating force in his artwork, as well. “Gravity’s Angel” is a “plasma sculpture” in which kinetic activity that suggests biology is viewed through three glass blocks, stacked like TV monitors and suggesting a human body. You get a sense of blood flowing in designated shapes, as if you’re viewing microscopic energy rendered as a dance of bodily fluid.

A kind of surreal 3-D still-life sensibility emanates from Kim Koga’s “Jelly Bean Harvest,” with its shiny ceramic “beans” out of which rise vivid red-neon tendrils. Koga’s “Ancestors,” with its melding of neon and nostalgic color Xerox, echoes David Svenson’s “Ghosts of Courageous Ancestors,” in which a photomural, wood, and glass-relief sculpture pay homage to Native American life.

Another introspective, essentially abstract artist here is Tessie Dong. Like Oshashi, Dong blends neon with such seemingly antithetical materials as rusty metal, mirror shards and fabric, contrasted with the techno-gleam of neon. Her sumptuous, sweeping compositions make for striking studies in juxtaposition.

Leaving this show--one of the more intriguing exhibits in the county of late--you tend to be sensitized to the visual stimuli in the everyday. “Foxy Lady Hair Styling,” reads a fanciful neon sign in Meiners Oaks. Previously ignored “OPEN” signs leap out for attention, signposts of business readiness.

On that count, neon art validates one important side effect of art by promoting a heightened awareness of the world outside the protected confines of the art world.

Details

* WHAT: Neon Art show.

* WHERE: G. Childress Gallery, 319 E. Roblar in Ojai.

* WHEN: Through Sept. 18.

* ETC.: Call 640-1387.