GALLERIES

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.) and David Pagel (D.P.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich.

Continuing

Tom LaDuke: Auto Destruct LaDuke’s terrific painted images are layered, shifting between abstraction and representation. In one, a precarious stack of cardboard boxes is interrupted by elements of Jan van Eyck’s 1434 “Arnolfini Wedding Portrait,” in which the painter acted as a literal witness to the marital union. In another, a pack of hunters and their dogs from a wintry picture by Pieter Brueghel the Elder seems to descend onto Isabella Rossellini’s luminous face in a still from the 1986 movie “Blue Velvet.” In all of these, a sinister (or at the very least melancholic) world lies just beneath the surface of perception. Light -- whether directly experienced, reflected, remembered or depicted -- is critical. Taking a page from Gerhard Richter, albeit in his own distinctive way, LaDuke exploits a painting’s capacity for exposing handmade deceptions -- a useful tool in a culture awash in the slippery photographic phantoms of reproduction. LaDuke is a latter-day Romantic, in full revolt against digital-age norms (C.K.). Angles Gallery, 2230 Main St., Santa Monica. Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; ends Feb. 20. (310) 396-5019.

Group Show: The Last Plastics Show Karl Marx famously said that history repeats itself first as tragedy then as farce. He might have thought differently if he’d had a chance to see “The Last Plastics Show,” an absorbing exhibition that features overlooked works by 15 of the 24 artists in the original 1972 version of the show, which was held at CalArts and organized by Judy Chicago, Doug Edge and DeWain Valentine. The current rendition is a timely eye-opener: It makes us mindful of how densely textured the present is before it gets streamlined and simplified and turned into history (D.P.). Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, 8568 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; ends Sat. (310) 815-1100.