Having Little but Gender in Common

Judging from its title, “Women Artists: Works on Paper” at the Lankershim Arts Center Gallery promises to be specific on gender and medium. Beyond those literal specifications, however, the show has no particular social ax to grind, although more can be read into the works than the artists may have intended.

Curator Josine Ianco Starrels selected 29 works based on divergent interests and personal statements. It’s a deliberately varied bunch, illustrating a range of styles and attitudes.

The most intrinsically feminist art in this lot comes from Eunice Kim, whose dark, murky mixed-media pieces are quietly fierce. They have a stronger impact than most others in the show, but close scrutiny is required.

In “The Proper Way to Sit,” an image of a woman sitting demurely is repeated in a series of rectangles that fade in and out. The words “confine,” “control” and “immobile”--as well as isolated letters--appear in the series of boxes, which seem to reflect subtle but binding social strictures.

Kim’s diptych “Women’s Positions” is a repeated image of a woman reclining, legs parted to form a V. In the other panel, a mannequin in a squatting position represents a definitively manipulable female figure. Wisely, Kim chooses a misty, mercurial route to explore women’s social roles, making it all the more potent.

Zolita Sverdlove’s “Cassius,” the first-prize winner in the juried show, is a monotype of a stern, androgynous face, emboldened by smudged, rugged lines. Second place went to Susan Smith Evans’ “Lizard Garden #5,” in which contrasting visual fields imply an altered perception of the world.

Photographic negatives, the familiar rectangular windows of televisions or computer monitors, and suggestions of reptile’s-eye fragmentation of sight lend intriguing strangeness.

Taking third place, Wendy Trauth’s “Serendipity” is a fastidious fantasy scenario harking back to Renaissance life, or a naive, pristinely drawn view thereof.

Ellen Rose’s amusing “Good Habits” finds a distorted image of an elderly nun in a frame full of scampering cherubs, while “Good Boy” depicts a boldly be-jowled bulldog, looking suspiciously similar to the nun.

There are examples of art seemingly for art’s own sake that can be interpreted in broader terms. Jay Rivkin’s meticulous drawing of a whisk broom, every bristle accounted for, is a household object glorified beyond its actual, mundane use.

Suzanne Garnier-Weythman’s finely rendered drawing, “The Coupling,” takes a close-up view of a railroad car coupling, serving as an appreciation of its simple ingenuity of design, as well as a sly sexual reference.

Toward the more cryptic end of the spectrum here, Kathryn Jacobi’s small, deceptively calm portraits are like elegant conceptual puzzles, revealing themselves only with the kind of point-blank inspection required of Kim’s work.

The portraits of cheerful quixotic faces, distorted by fog or wavering focus, seem to yearn for a quality of innocence. That yearning is the subject here, in a gallery abundant with other, decidedly differing, viewpoints.

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* “Women Artists: Works on Paper,” through April 13 at the Lankershim Arts Center Gallery, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood; (818) 752-2682.

Naked Meets Nude: Mark Gash’s exhibition of frankly painted nudes, in the upstairs Granados 2 Gallery, sends out conflicting messages, to its credit. Gash wields a garish brush, at times veering between things tawdry and tasteful. These bare female subjects, naked as much as they are nude, exist in some cultural gray zone between Manet’s “Olympia” and Russ Meyer’s soft-core smut.

As implied by the show’s title, “Flesh and Bones,” Gash is at least somewhat interested in the fleshy, corporeal element of his subjects beyond their archetypal role as objects of carnal desire and/or feminine beauty. Gash deploys elements of fervid Expressionist brushwork as well as touches of Fauvist discoloration, but he also sometimes shows a fetishist’s obsession with such details as genitalia and nipples.

In one painting, a woman on a bed is viewed beyond feet in the foreground, giving the observer and/or painter an intimate perspective: voyeurism ahoy. In other paintings, the subjects are practiced in their dispassionate come-hitherness. Ambivalence is a big issue here, in terms of the figures themselves and the appreciation thereof.

Vampish and coy, Gash’s paintings seem to relish their own noncommittal nature regarding the fairer sex. In response, we’re not quite sure whether to think lofty or lusty thoughts in their presence. Maybe that’s the point.

* Mark Gash, “Flesh and Bones,” through April 13 at Granados 2 Gallery, 3221 Glendale Blvd., Atwater Village; (818) 238-5397.