An artist hosts a workshop inspired by the Theory of Relativity and a photographer exhibits covert photos he took of UCSD students 40 years ago.
 
5. Just like a mixtape
It's like a psychedelia-meets-grunge mixtape at Maloney Fine Art. With his nonchalant photos of vacant lots, Ed Ruscha is George Harrison: the hippest of the old guard. Raymond Pettibon's like Lou Reed, with his ink drawings of a flash of light and a surfer who's overthinking things, and Mike Kelley is some mash-up of Kathleen Hanna and Ariel Pink, an irreverently smart slacker. It's not a mind-blowing show, but it might remind you of times when your mind was blown. 2680 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City; through June 7. 310-570-6420, maloneyfineart.com.]

4. Unexpected
“Failed Expectations” is the theme of the story night organized by the Women for Creative Work Center and Gal Palace. The palace is a DIY event space and the WCWC is trying to orchestrate conversation among creative, forward-thinking women, and they're being level-headed and undogmatic about their idealism. Anyone who identifies as womyn (the alt feminist spelling) can RSVP to tell a story. Anyone else can attend. 131 S. Rampart Blvd., Westlake; Friday, June 6, 8 p.m. womenscenterforcreativework.com.

3. A spy on campus
Photographer Fred Lonidier made some of the images in his show at Michael Benevento gallery while still a student at UC San Diego, where he would later teach. He didn't know the term “male gaze” then but, in retrospect, thinks that might be what he was exploring. It was 1972 and he took photos of “parts” of girls on campus – a butt in corduroys, a chest through a turtleneck, an arm. These he paired with images of glamorized, sexualized women from men's magazines. He calls the project “Girl Watcher Lens” and it's creepy, imagining him with his camera, catching girls unaware, but that's the point: Any project that reduces people to parts should be unsettling. 7578 Sunset Blvd., Hlywd.; through July 12. (323) 874-6400, beneventolosangeles.com.

2. Good juvenile jokes 
If you went to art school, you know what the art undergrads do with condoms, filling them with various fluids, blowing them up like balloons. It's hard to know what to make of Gabriel Kuri's use of condoms in his first show at Regen Projects. Inflated, stuck between rocks as if holding them up, they're like the juvenile, risqué words in jokes well crafted enough to puzzle over for a little while. The same can be said of Kuri's insulation-roll sculptures: they're funny but well made enough that you laugh with them, not at them. 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; through June 28. (310) 276-5424, regenprojects.com.

1. The 4-D experience
Does anyone really understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity? Krysten Cunningham bets that not many of us do. As part of her show at Human Resources, the artist is co-hosting a workshop with artist-choreographer Michelle Lai. Participants will do playful exercises premised on the space-time theory of Einstein's teacher, Hermann Minkowski, who believed space and time were never separate. 410 Cottage Home St., Chinatown; Saturday, June 7, 2-4 p.m.; RSVP required. (213) 290-4752; humanresourcesla.com.

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