ART REVIEWS : A ‘Life’ of Hunting Down Perfectly Quirky Bargains

Bargain-hunters have always known that shopping is an art, but visual artists have only recently discovered that buying consumer goods can play a big part in their work.

During the market-oriented 1980s, many artists demonstrated their refinement and taste--and made successful careers--simply by putting their purchases on display in galleries. A spunky, 19-artist show at ACME Gallery extends this Pop tradition.

Organized by Mexican curator Maria Guerra, “It’s My Life, I’m Going to Change the World” suggests that young painters and sculptors from the United States and Mexico still shop with passion and discernment but are not completely satisfied with what’s available in stores.

Michael Gonzalez makes snappy abstract paintings by sandwiching dots from Wonder Bread wrappers between sheets of clear plexiglass. Neatly screwed to the wall, his synthetic images stand out as the exhibition’s most masterfully crafted and beautiful.

Kim MacConnel’s pint-size clowns, made from scraps of plastic trash that have washed up on the beach, and Chris Finley’s re-arrangeable, multipart sculpture “Blind Jurassic Rap Pad” take their cue from Transformers--the flexible toys children reconfigure to form cars, monsters and ray guns. Finley’s and MacConnel’s homemade works playfully recycle ordinary containers into an impressive array of eccentric forms.

From highway signs to bottles of orange soda, and from extension cords to Cheddar-flavored crackers, Melanie Smith collects fluorescent-orange objects and arranges them in a casual, eye-grabbing installation that spills into the gallery’s storeroom. Behind the front desk, Sofia Taboas has wired cheap plastic beads into colorful clusters that dangle from the ceiling like gaudy, overgrown earrings.

Eduardo Abaroa has sculpted perverse little dolls and inserted them into plastic retail packages, on which he has inscribed elaborate advertisements. Pillars, windows and other architectural elements are used as letters that spell the names of her friends in Daniela Rossell’s retouched snapshots of buildings.

With a love of melodrama, Cliff Baldwin’s looped videotape intimately links products to consumers. Inspired by karaoke bars, where customers provide the vocals to their favorite songs, Baldwin sings silly pop ditties from the 1970s and old Sinatra standbys.

Somehow, he pulls it off. Although it’s clear he’s not totally sincere, it’s impossible to believe Baldwin’s being completely ironic. His goofy enthusiasm is infectious and fun.

As a group, the artists in “It’s My Life” do not present consumer goods just as they find them; they transform their purchases into weirdly desirable hybrids. Guerra’s buoyant show celebrates the fusion of mass-produced commodities and handcrafted oddities. Call it a cross between store-bought perfection and do-it-yourself quirkiness.

* ACME Gallery, 1800-B Berkeley St., Santa Monica, (310) 264-5818, through June 24. Closed Sundays through Tuesdays.

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Mini-Narratives: Alexis Smith’s wonderfully old-fashioned collages and wall-mounted assemblages drift into your head like dumb country-Western songs on a borrowed car’s AM radio. Once their casual rhythms hook you, it’s impossible to stop replaying them in your inner ear, again and again and again.

Although the cliched phrases and stereotypical pictures in her 22 new pieces at Margo Leavin Gallery initially seem too slight to have lasting impact, they slip into your memory and work their invisible magic. Collectively titled “Cherished Notions,” these deft combinations of pictures, words and souvenirs set in elaborate, handmade frames somehow manage to balance their slightness with a bittersweet twang that continues to resonate. Smith is a master of light-handed poignancy.

The magic is in the details. “Velvet Glow” juxtaposes a picture of a sleeping kitten, a pinup girl’s smiling face and the label from a defunct household product. Each of the woman’s eyebrows is adorned with a single cat whisker. Over the model’s left eye, Smith has glued a trick 3-D eye that winks as you pass by. These little touches put a spin on cliches about women as vixens and sex kittens, juicing up stereotypes with a shot of mystery and self-possession.

Other pieces combine humor and tragedy in selective, vignette-like views of the relations between the sexes. Tales of woe (“I Saw Her Leave the Luau With the Guy Who Parked the Car”), of housecleaning (“There’s Something About Dirt That Makes Me Feel Clean”) and of promiscuity (“It ain’t easy being easy”) emerge from Smith’s art like refrains that men and women keep reliving over and over again.

Wit and wisdom intermingle in these ambiguous, open-ended mini-narratives. In the right mood, anyone can star in Smith’s loosely plotted dramas, where dreams, memories and myths merge with the ordinary stuff of everyday life.

* Margo Leavin Gallery, 812 N. Robertson Blvd., (310) 273-0603, through June 30. Closed Sundays, Mondays.