The first works L&M Arts installed in its carefully landscaped triangular backyard were Paul McCarthy's gigantic, garish, gray sculptures of a larger-than-life boy and girl perched on tree limbs. Each had two heads, hazy features and limbs that looked half-deformed. Since L&M's yard is fully visible from the street — a fairly demure, residential stretch of Venice — it was impossible to miss. Later, during a Thomas Houseago show, the yard was home to a masklike bust and primitive squatting figure. During an Alexander Calder exhibition, it was home to a striking black-and-white mobile. The art in the yard, always big, ambitious or both, reaches an audience far larger than the one L&M would have if it kept its exhibitions inside gallery walls. 660 S. Venice Blvd., Venice. (310) 821-6400, lmgallery.com.

—Catherine Wagley

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