Some of These Dogs Rate Best of Show

In the wall text for “Dogs in Form and Image,” at the Golden West College Fine Arts Gallery through Friday, gallery director Donna Sandrock writes that images of pets can be an artist’s “most personal or ‘covert’ work.”

The show itself is amply stocked with garden-variety paintings of canines that appeal more to dog lovers than contemporary-art hounds. But there are a few pieces by well-known artists who have other matters in mind.

Kim Dingle demonstrates “How to Make a Regular Dog Look Like an Expensive Shar-pei” with before-and-after photos of a mild-mannered pet’s forehead being squeezed by a pair of hands to create the characteristic furrowed brow and narrow eyes of the prized breed.

The image alone is hilarious in this witty mingling of two eternally popular genres (self-help guides and snob appeal) and the riddle of how ugliness can be prized more than beauty in species other than our own.

In an early (1975) painting, “Dad Sawing Wood and Dog With Bag,” Jeffrey Vallance evokes a deadpan suburban scene outside a flat gray-shingled house.

Squinting against the sun, his arms chopped off by the canvas edge, Dad seems to be engaged in an activity as empty and meaningless as the paper bag in the dog’s mouth.

There’s some other good stuff--mostly reliant on an anthropomorphic approach--such as William Wegman’s legendary videos of a bemused Man Ray (who repeatedly rejects the artist’s offer of a cigarette, one of several dog-as-straight-man routines) and Howard Warshaw’s vintage ink and gesso drawing of a genteel “Dog With Bow Tie.”

But the premise of the show--that the dog images are somehow “private” works--doesn’t stand up. Although artists may try out new approaches on the Q.T., or decide to keep their strictly therapeutic work from prying eyes, the pieces on view simply reflect one of the boundless catalog of objects and interests that animate contemporary art.

* “Dogs in Form and Image,” through Friday at Golden West College Fine Arts Gallery, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach. Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday and Friday. (714) 892-7711, Ext. 58356.