Blending In Surprise

It could be the most unexpected place in the San Fernando Valley to find art worth seeing.

While hair is coiffed and beauty maintained, the walls boast paintings of sea life and colorful scenes of urban dread. Bigoudi International on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills is a beauty salon and sometime art gallery. This month, Alfredo de Batuc shows his dramatic dream-world paintings, which appear deceptively decorative and colorful on casual glance.

Closer examination reveals a dark side, an attitude hinted at in the show’s title, “Dreams of DispLAcement.” De Batuc, who was born in Mexico and lives in Los Angeles, has painted murals, and a certain sense of weird, lucid grandeur imbues his paintings. The tension is reduced to a few elements in these big, uncluttered pictures.

Usually, a fish is involved, flying matter-of-factly through sunset skies over cities or landscapes in peril. In “Sign/Fire,” old buildings are wrapped in threatening flames and plumes of smoke, with the signature fish flying overhead, laughing.

De Batuc’s paintings state their case with simple, striking means.

The Magritte-like clarity of the imagery grabs the viewer before the twisted logic of the subject matter sinks in. Given the peculiar sights and smells of this space’s workaday activity, the surreal quotient reaches new heights.

BE THERE

“Dreams of DispLAcement,” by Alfredo de Batuc, through July 1 at Bigoudi International Gallery, 21720 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. Hours: Tuesday and Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Wednesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. (818) 887-3627.