A Union of Pop, Minimalism That’s Over the Top

Gaudy and obnoxious, Peter Halley’s new paintings at Kohn Turner Gallery are more fun to look at than his earlier abstract images of cells, circuitry and plumbing. Adding a hefty dose of flagrant decoration to pictures heavily indebted to the unlikely influences of Donald Judd and Andy Warhol, this sprawling two-floor exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints, wallpaper, a mural and a sculptural relief marries Minimalism to Pop Art in a combination so over the top that it borders on being Baroque.

From Judd’s Minimalism, Halley takes an interest in seriality, or slight variations within a strict system of repetitions. His signature images of cells, simultaneously representing batteries and prisons, don’t reject Judd’s sequences as much as they tip them on edge, humorously using their forms for unexpected purposes.

Even greater is Halley’s debt to Warhol. From the father of Pop, he builds upon a screaming Day-Glo palette, immediately recognizable imagery and an obsession with the distance between signs and what they represent.

Halley explicitly acknowledges Warhol’s influence with a wall drawing of a flowchart titled, “A Talks to B,” a reference to Warhol’s book “From A to B and Back Again.” His new cartoonish wallpaper fills two galleries and recalls Warhol’s own, but it fails to match his progenitor’s willingness to make silk-screened paintings that are no more interesting than wallpaper--wallpaper that’s as visually arresting as canvases.

In contrast, Halley’s wallpaper, mural and black-lighted wall relief (best seen through the gallery’s front window at night) have the presence of props, temporary embellishments that add to the presentation of the paintings but never equal their power. If Halley’s big, brash and dizzying paintings weren’t captivating or aggressively decorative on their own, these adornments would only distract from their considerable impact.

* Kohn Turner Gallery, 9006 Melrose Ave., (310) 271-4453, through June 8. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

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High Hopes: Dominique Moody’s small, medium and larger-than-life sculptures at the Watts Towers Arts Center tell an age-old tale of suffering’s transformation into hope. Evoking ancestral spirits, childhood memories and influential teachers, the Washington, D.C.-based artist’s mixed-media assemblages convey a message so positive and optimistic that it’s tempting to just overlook their shortcomings.

Titled “Into the Dream Box,” Moody’s exhibition begins with her recollected dreams. Most of the lovingly handcrafted objects on display take the shape of partially opened boxes in which treasured mementos are kept. The most elaborate ones resemble homes, simply larger versions of similar containers, or praise houses--flashy, altar-like structures where dreams for the future are nurtured by some Americans of West African descent.

The strength of Moody’s sculptures resides in their conviction that art must inspire, not merely instruct or inform. Their weakness lies in their overreliance on wall labels bearing poems by the artist’s friend, Jocelyn Y. Stewart (a Times staff writer). In providing background information to Moody’s art, these texts explain too much about it, turning the sculptures into mere illustrations of a personal story and thus diminishing their inspiring mystery.

* Watts Towers Arts Center, 1727 E. 107th St., (213) 847-4646, through June 30. Closed Mondays.