Halloween at Heart of Spirited Show

With its artistic nod to the Day of the Dead, the current group show at Art City Gallery is just in time to howl. As with most group exhibitions at the gallery, a variety of perspectives are brought to “A Rare Blend,” but the skeletal imagery and references to bodies--alive, dead and in between--are timely.

The most obvious example is Matt Harvey’s cheeky work, “Spike Holding the Sacred Orb on Halloween.” A figure is comprised of rusty metal spikes, its body fashioned into a tai chi position, with an alabaster skull for a head: The wry interplay of very different materials gives the piece its weird charm.

Skulls are also a running theme in the skillfully rendered paintings of Chris Provenzano, who, in one piece, depicts boxes full of toothy skulls and calls it “Dentures.” “Family Portrait” finds a man’s skull with an assortment of archetypal females--a nun, a demonic temptress and a sad-eyed woman. It’s no happy domestic scene, but a reflection on morality and mortality.

Provenzano brings a similar narrative tension to “Conquest--Before and After,” a surreal historical painting with Aztecs, Spaniards and a skeleton riding on a carousel. The artist seems to be commenting on the continuing saga of political tyranny and imperialism. One of the artists in this show who crosses over from two- to three-dimensional work, Provenzano also shows a sinuous abstract marble sculpture.

Ken Farkash, too, goes in both directions in terms of medium, though it’s difficult to trace a clear connection between his sculptural and painterly ideas. “20-20 Hindsight” is a giddy, faux naif painting of a pink nude viewed from behind. Meanwhile, his “Untitled Torso” sculpture finds a luminous alabaster heart nestled within a strange metal contraption, touching on the link between personal biology and post-industrial dread.

Conceptual artist Steve Knauff offers a bit of assemblage with the self-explanatory piece “sTeVe Goes to the 1996 National Conventions.” A collage piece with photos arranged on cubes dangling from the ceiling, Knauff’s work takes on the appearance of a gonzo report from the political front.

Other Art City regulars show up here, with good work. “Found object” purveyor Dan Layman shows his “Muffler Dog With Sawback” and “Crescent Wrench Bug w/ Bowling Ball,” the titles of which hint at the scruffy poetry of the work.

On the back wall, MB Hanrahan’s delicate watercolors, in gold frames, manage to strike a happy balance between kitsch and mysticism. That balance might also sum up the cultural essence of Halloween.

* “A Rare Blend,” through Nov. 9 at Art City, 31 Peking St. in Ventura. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays. Call 648-1690.

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Nice While it Lasted Department: In what is reportedly the third and final exhibition in the fine, sprawling temporary art space known as Third Floor Gallery in the Ventura City Hall, artists connected with Studio 83 and the Buenaventura Art Assn. are sharing their wares. As with the earlier shows in this transformed jail, the works have to compete with the built-in scenic wonder of this room, which has a bird’s-eye view of Ventura and the ocean beyond.

Regular visitors to the Buenaventura Gallery will recognize strong pieces recently seen downtown, such as Gerd Koch’s mythic quasi-abstract “Icarus,” Jean Short’s Hopper-esque “Honeymoon” and Betty Buckner’s stylized landscape approach in the diptych “Safflower Fields.”

From the school of precision, Mike Bridges’ “Santa Clara Valley” and Parmlee Duke’s fond watercolor portrait of the Santa Paula depot pay heed to details and romantic visions of old California. The slice of suburban landscape in Minja Chang’s “Autumn in Northridge” may be a far cry from autumn in New York, but is a pleasant, untrammeled scene.

Off in the far corner, Celeste Jaeger shows three paintings under the title “The Red Head,” discreet nude studies about which we are informed upon entering the gallery, with the strangely prudish warning: “This show contains some nudity.” On more abstractly sensual turf, Aimee French shows two of her signature oil-on-silk paintings.

Elsewhere in City Hall, Terri Wuerth is showing her small oil paintings, some of which are hardly larger than a postcard, made conspicuous by their modesty of scale. We are forced to either ignore them or give close scrutiny.

She paints landscapes and other scenes of life with an obvious appreciation for the generality of nature rather than the specific, singular details. It’s the forest, more than the trees, that interest her--and, by extension,--us.

* “Fall Show ‘96,” through Dec. 7 at the Third Floor Gallery in Ventura City Hall, 501 Poli St. Noon-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Call 658-4760.