Color Coordinated: Casey Cook’s new paintings abandon...

Color Coordinated: Casey Cook’s new paintings abandon the quirky vulnerability of her earlier works in favor of hip, up-to-the-minute stylishness. Where the young artist’s previous pictures (shown last in Los Angeles almost two years ago) gave shape to a risky willingness to experiment with anything that captured her fancy, these nine increasingly contained works at Dan Bernier Gallery are both tougher and more guarded.

So aggressively decorative that they wear their newfound professionalism on their sleeves, Cook’s hyper-stylized panels consist of an edgy mix of cool distance and stripped-bare self-exposure. With rounded corners that recall 35mm slides and kitchen counters, these eye-grabbing pieces deploy simplified images alongside bits of enigmatic graffiti and vacant rectangles of oddly complementary colors to make good taste look risque, if not downright licentious.

Each panel consists of an uneven grid whose irregular sections contain graphic depictions of bunnies, turtles, snakes and elephants, as well as deep-sea creatures, insects, igloos and nude women. Archetypal figures from ancient Egypt, modern Transylvania and contemporary horror movies also populate Cook’s paintings.

Despite such Mannerist extravaganzas, what’s most striking about this work is its distinct palette. Extensive ranges of beiges, taupes, ivories and creams play off similarly subtle spectra of smoky blues, deep greens and weird juxtapositions of icy burgundies and fiery oranges.

So extreme in their color coordination, Cook’s images seem to beat professional interior decorators at their own game. Each part of each painting has been so carefully matched with its other elements that the room in which it hangs becomes nothing but an afterthought.

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* Dan Bernier Gallery, 3026 1/2 Nebraska Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 264-4882, through Dec. 20. Closed Sundays and Mondays.