Exploring the Ambiguity of Pranks in ‘Dandelions’

Pranksterism and the visual arts share an illustrious history, especially since the modern era began and it became difficult to know whether any work ought to be taken seriously or as some kind of joke. The best art often invites both responses: Initially, it may look like an irresponsible prank, but over time its capacity to sustain our attention can establish and attest to its seriousness.

At Kantor Gallery, artists Darcy Paley and Keith Pirlot attempt to exploit the edgy ambiguity between gags and serious works. In the end, however, their collaboration is too confused or undeveloped to do much more than rehash standard themes about Modern art’s relation to pranksterism.

Titled “Dandelions,” their exhibition consists of about a dozen large color photographs depicting modest props the artists have placed in various locations around Los Angeles. While it’s not clear if these “interventions” are meant to stand on their own, or if the oversize photos documenting them are the primary works of art, it is clear that Paley and Pirlot intend to infuse everyday life with a bit of anarchistic disorder.

One photo shows an open box of spray paint, labeled “FREE” and set on the steps of Hollywood High School. Another image depicts a curb along Melrose Avenue that has been painted bright red, transforming a block of metered parking spaces into a no-parking zone. A third print displays 400 pounds of smooth stones piled on the sidewalk outside a subway entrance.

Other projects are less obnoxious. They include the nicely repainted interiors of two public restrooms in Pacific Palisades; four ficus trees surreptitiously planted in a park in Beverly Hills; and a pair of black mourning bands wrapped around the pillars of a downtown bank.

Although the impulse to generate perceptual and conceptual uncertainty in viewers visiting galleries or homes sometimes results in powerful art, it doesn’t play very well on the street, where different expectations are at work. Rather than stimulating viewers, Paley’s and Pirlot’s exhibition tramples on the desires of passersby. Half-baked pranks with artistic ambitions are less engaging than everyday pranks that never presume to merit wide audiences.

* Kantor Gallery, 8642 Melrose Ave., (310) 659-5388, through July 29. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

Tom’s Images: At Mark Moore Gallery, a superb survey of drawings by Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen) makes homosexual sex look as American as apple pie--and a whole lot more wholesome.

That’s a major achievement all the more remarkable because it flies in the face of the rules that govern the art world and society at large. At a time when all forms of pleasure are suspect, and outsiders--gay or otherwise--are expected to be happy in marginalized positions, it’s inspiring to see a body of work that treats sex among men as nothing to get excited about--unless, of course, you get turned on by an unending parade of beefcake.

Meticulously rendered and driven by a rambunctious love of the subject, these page-size gouaches, watercolors, charcoals and drawings in pencil and ink by Tom of Finland (1920-1991) are all sweetness and satisfaction, even when they depict leather-clad studs manhandling one another, sometimes with chains, restraints and batons. Either dressed to kill or not dressed at all, every muscular man in these happy-go-lucky works is having the time of his life.

The bright, cheery side of sadomasochism thus takes compelling (and rarely seen) shape in many of Tom of Finland’s exquisite renditions of strapping lumberjacks, vigorous military officers, virtuoso acrobats, smiling bikers, smirking cowboys, bulging bodybuilders, scheming jailbirds and police officers serving above and beyond the call of duty. Imagine such songs as the Village People’s “Macho Man” and “Y.M.C.A.” pulsating in the background, and you’ll get a good feel for the exhibition’s spirited celebration of larger-than-lifesize fantasy.

The centerpiece of this first solo show of the artist’s work in Los Angeles since 1978 is a group of 80 drawings borrowed from the permanent collection of the Tom of Finland Foundation, an L.A.-based archive founded in 1986 to preserve and maintain his work. Included in the chronological display in the rear galleries are finished drawings, preparatory sketches and multi-frame comics that date from 1946 to 1987.

The earliest works feature rosy-cheeked sailors and impeccably dressed gentlemen eyeing one another suggestively, if not lasciviously, as well as groups of youthful lumberjacks guiding logs downriver. As the artist’s talent and confidence grew, the subjects of his drawings became more explicit and their style more taut and polished. Men swimming gave way to shower scenes, barroom gropings, countryside cruising, graphic couplings, wild orgies and outlandish fantasies, all delicately modeled to highlight every muscle, gesture and detail.

All of Tom of Finland’s images, including the 42 studies in the main gallery, are animated by a powerful love of straightforward fun. The demand that his work be culturally central, and not marginal or peripheral, is best expressed in the artist’s own words: “I wouldn’t mind being known as the Norman Rockwell of gay erotica.” Simultaneously all-American and gay as can be, Tom of Finland’s exhibition lives up to this dream.

* Mark Moore Gallery, 2032-A Broadway, Santa Monica, (310) 453-3031, through Aug. 9. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

Three From Germany: Packed into Newspace Gallery are paintings, photographs and an installation by three young artists from Germany. Although the proximity of these diverse works invites viewers to see connections among them, each artist’s contribution stands on its own as a small solo show.

Guest curator Susanne Vielmetter has wisely refrained from interspersing the pieces with one another and from forcing viewers to see them as being intrinsically German--whatever that might mean. Rather than extolling a national identity, her exhibition suggests that cultural influences drift past borders with ease.

Hollywood movies and art world personalities are the show’s most important sources.

Thomas Emde’s installation plays like an interminable art film, causing you to wonder if anything at all is happening. Over repeating seven-minute intervals, his large, glow-in-the-dark paintings are subjected to pitch darkness, filtered daylight, fluorescent light and black light. Although the idea behind the piece is intriguing, it is swamped by its elaborate gadgetry, somberness and plodding pace.

Jutta Koether’s small, muddy paintings are too focused on the bad-boy antics of minor, over-exposed art stars from Cologne. Their own psychological tension is flattened by their stylistic affinities with the late Martin Kippenberger’s unambitious art about failure.

Isabell Heimerdinger’s large C-prints are the show’s most resonant works. Each color photo presents a scene from a recent movie, minus its characters. These computer-manipulated video stills leave viewers before empty rooms that are both hauntingly familiar and strangely nondescript. Sandwiched between an installation that tries too hard and a group of paintings that don’t try hard enough, Heimerdinger’s simple images stand out as the show’s most promising.

* Newspace Gallery, 5241 Melrose Ave., (213) 469-9353, through Aug. 9. Closed Sundays and Mondays.