Darkness Falls, Abstraction Illuminates

Christine Nguyen, Daniel Richter, Mel Bochner, Victor Man

A A A Comments (0) By Christopher Miles Wednesday, Feb 20 2008

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Victor Man at Blum & Poe

More darkness falls at Blum & Poe, where, in Victor Man's first solo show in the United States, the artist sets a grayed palette, establishes a somber tone, and leaves viewers with a layered enigma. Man specializes in strained juxtapositions: arranging images, mostly appearing to be appropriated and presented in a variety of media, in proximities that tempt your eyes and mind to try to bridge the blank wall space between them, or setting up what seems a neat enough relationship between two or three images and then throwing it off by wedging in another. His other specialty is burying evidence — hanging a flag so that you have to take its partially exposed graphic and assume that it bears a skull and crossbones, rendering another painting in strokes too broad to handle its details, or printing pin-up images in black-on-black. Man's is a deciphering game that pits you between what you know, what you think you know, and what you want to think. While such gamesmanship can be tedious, the glints of connection between sexuality, power and sublimated violence that flash across your synapses while navigating the gallery help you realize that the game itself is the one clear metaphor of this exhibition. Blum & Poe, 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A., Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; thru Feb. 23. (310) 836-2062 or www.blumandpoe.com.

Christine Nguyen, Particle Drifts, Skypos, and Highways (2008)

Daniel Richter, D.P. II (2007-08)

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Mel Bochner at Marc Selwyn Fine Art

Abstract painting concerned with geometric structure and color has been a shrinking industry for some time, as many have rejected its relevance today, while its champions too often fall into quoting the past rather than advancing its developments. The current exhibition of works from the '70s by Mel Bochner at Marc Selwyn gallery reminds us that such practice, while not explicit in terms of image or language, is nonetheless relational - profoundly challenging one's faculties to assess components and composition in context. It's a treat to see one of Bochner's wall drawings from the period re-created here, but the load of the show is carried by the small works on paper, especially the Soaring Studies foursome from 1979 and '80. Offering side-by-side viewing of Bochner's variation in application of color to the same composition of shapes within shapes so as to vary its rhythm and sense of movement exemplifies the inquiry underlying his practice. Marc Selwyn Fine Art, 6222 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 101, L.A., Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.- 6 p.m.; thru March 1. (323) 933-9911 www.marcselwynfineart.com.