ART REVIEWS : Ravages of War Inspire Gentle Fantasies

An enchanting series of delicate little drawings by Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982) ranks among the sweetest, most whimsical works in the Afro-Cuban artist’s impressive oeuvre. Titled “Interlude Marseille,” the exhibition of 32 silhouettes of phantasmagorical creatures at Latin American Masters Gallery has the feel of a refreshing vacation, made all the more poignant by the tragic events surrounding it.

When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Marseille served as a temporary haven for anti-fascist intellectuals. Lam fled there, and for just over a year worked on a series of ink drawings to illustrate Andre Breton’s poem “Fata Morgana.” Although the Vichy government destroyed all but five copies of the book, Lam preserved his drawings when he set sail for the West Indies.

These intimate works depict animal-human fusions typical of surrealism, as well as classic Cubism’s articulations of women as musical instruments or monstrous mutations. However, none of the aggressiveness that usually fuels such styles is present in Lam’s gentle drawings.

Teeth-filled orifices, menacing eyes, spiked protrusions and sharp angles give way to graceful curves, fragile lines and twinkling details. Androgynous figures appear more vulnerable than threatening.

It is as if Lam’s fantasy creatures were playing hide-and-seek with themselves, sometimes seamlessly merging with their backgrounds, and at other times dissolving into pairs of figures engaged in animated conversations or passionate embraces. In this playful menagerie where cruelty and viciousness are nowhere to be seen, identity drifts fluidly among people, beasts and inanimate objects. It may not be Eden, but it’s powerfully optimistic.

Giving vivid shape to dreamy possibilities, Lam’s crisp images provide momentary respite from the war’s devastation. On the run from its rapidly spreading destruction, the artist dreamed up an escape whose resonance is intensified when considered in relation to its surroundings.

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* Latin American Masters Gallery, 264 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 271-4847, through Jan . 2. Closed Sunday and Monday. Also closed for Thanksgiving, Nov. 23-24. Dazzling Airspace: Like a wild, 3-D drawing flying through the sky, Judy Pfaff’s dynamic installation energizes every inch of airspace over your head. Efficiently suspended from the walls and ceiling of the entire Williamson Gallery (at Art Center College of Design), this sprawling expanse of soaring lines is the centerpiece of a lively exhibition that includes 40 small, quirky drawings and five messy big ones.

Titled “Ear to Ear,” Pfaff’s gravity-defying piece of participatory theater hovers tantalizingly overhead, just beyond the reach of your fingertips but not beyond the grasp of your imagination.

Made up of long, barkless tree branches, in naturally weathered grays, and tangled clusters of bushier plants painted bright blue and stark white, Pfaff’s network of organic forms simultaneously recalls a modern city’s intersecting freeways and a body’s cardiovascular system.

Including shiny metal pipes, welded copper conduit, clear plastic tubing and thin steel cables, “Ear to Ear” fuses technology and nature to suggest that viewers inhabit a realm somewhere between plants and machines. On the gallery’s four walls, neatly penciled grids and gloppy protrusions of plaster echo this suggestion.

Colorful works on paper similarly intimate that the sound waves that facilitate communication affect our hands, feet and faces, as well as our ears. The repeated patterns in these juicy images record Pfaff’s fascination with organic and mechanical impulses that sometimes short-circuit rationality’s control.

Speaking eloquently of the silences within or beyond language, Pfaff’s elaborate installation takes place over our heads. Under its spell, logic and intuition are set on equal footing: Both are necessary to keep up with her work’s meandering movements.

* Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena, (818) 396-2244, through Dec . 21. Closed Monday and Thanksgiving Day.

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Vessels of Whimsy: One look at Adrian Saxe’s wacky ceramic vessels at Garth Clark Gallery will make you wonder why the old modernist dictum--that form must follow function--ever seemed like a good idea. Teetering on the brink of utter dysfunctionality, these hollow, stoppered objects and almost impossible-to-use ewers gleefully fuse utility and decoration.

Less anthropomorphic than any of the vessels that appeared in Saxe’s spectacular retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art two years ago, his new pieces embody qualities more closely linked to animals than to humans.

Seven gorgeously glazed ewers, cast from clusters of ginger root, balance precariously on lava-like globs of porcelain. With mind-boggling virtuosity, Saxe creates the impression that each ewer is a miniature coral reef stuck atop an underwater rock. Fishing lures, sea horses, plastic fish and jewel-encrusted pods dangle from various protrusions, completing the illusion that liquids belong both inside and outside these eccentric containers.

Six larger works, resembling serpentine sea creatures, cleverly trespass on the hallowed territory of sculpture. Set on pedestals so they tower overhead or stare straight in your eye, Saxe’s masterful fusions of porcelain and stoneware have the presence of fashion-conscious eels lurking around their customized lairs.

Sinuous, sexy and somewhat threatening, these ambitious, jewel-studded pieces appear to contain ample energy to spring from their present positions. Charging their surroundings with a powerful sense of animation, Saxe’s uncategorizeable masterpieces include viewers in unpredictable scenarios. Here, form functions to facilitate fantasy, and decorative flourishes are absolutely essential.

* Garth Clark Gallery, 170 S. La Brea Ave., (213) 939-2189, through Nov . 29. Closed Sunday and Monday , and Thanksgiving Day.