Art and Artifice: Too big to be...

Art and Artifice: Too big to be real cigar boxes, yet too true-to-life to be mere depictions of cigar boxes, Daniel Douke’s 3-D trompe l’oeil paintings hover in the ambiguous realm between reality and representation.

The first thing you notice when you enter Richard Heller Gallery is how realistic the five wall-mounted cigar boxes are, not to mention how lifelike the four cardboard boxes and eight sheets of spot-welded steel look, despite being made of nothing but acrylic or oil on canvas or wood. As this impression fades, you begin to think that Douke’s art is that of a consummate prop designer, skillfully executed to dupe viewers into believing that they’re looking at the real thing.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Closer scrutiny highlights the delight the artist has taken in transforming a patch of gel medium into a folded strip of packaging tape, or in making hundreds of flecks of pigment appear to be wood grain, or in getting a series of idyllic scenes to appear to be mass-produced labels, pasted on the boxes to ensure their tasteful authenticity.

Douke’s supremely fake objects invite viewers to savor a sense of realism while simultaneously relishing a sense of extraordinary artifice.

In contrast to props, these deliriously engineered works do not try to pass themselves off as real. On the contrary, they get viewers to revel in the pleasures of their exquisite fakery, while knowing exactly what they are.

The largest cigar box, measuring 3 by 4 feet, stands out as the show’s best. Adorned with a portrait that resembles one painted by Rembrandt--the ultimate Dutch Master--this fictitious brand takes Douke’s shameless celebration of artifice to the next level, cleverly demonstrating that when reality and artifice meet, artists and viewers can sometimes have their cake and eat it too.

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* Richard Heller Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 453-9191, through Nov. 8. Closed Sundays and Mondays.