Art Review

Eye Candy: Seth Kaufman’s thin slabs of resin in which variously woven strands of yarn have been encased appear to be so infatuated with their status as objets d’art that they fail to do what art does best: cause viewers to forget that we’re looking at works of art, by getting us to believe that what we see has something to say about our lives.

In one dimly lit gallery at Miller Fine Art, the L.A.-based artist has placed a nearly 4-foot-square piece over a window so that natural light illuminates a tangled web of white yarn embedded in the resin. Comparisons with classic Light and Space works are as inescapable as they are unflattering. The religious solemnity of the darkened gallery also weighs heavily on Kaufman’s untitled work, which has the presence of an inert lump of leftovers that have been unproductively fussed over.

In a second gallery, 12 small wall-mounted squares contain brightly colored strands of yarn laid out in random patterns. A similar medium-size piece is mounted on a light-box. Eye candy of the most superficial sort, Kaufman’s lackadaisical art is at once too tasteful and slapdash to be more than a passing distraction.

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* Miller Fine Art, 8720 1/2 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 652-0057, through Saturday. Closed Sunday through Tuesday.