Ned Evans, SandcastleVeteran local abstract painter Ned Evans has long conflated the rigorous and the sensuous, and the fusion in these latest paintings is probably his most seamless to date. Evans streaks sourball-candy colors inside clearly but not rigidly described vertical slats, piling and compiling these picket formations until they cover every inch of canvas. The arrangements are sometimes bold, heraldic and even quasi-religious, evoking the hieratic centrality of altarpieces; other times they decentralize our gaze, racking up random (but carefully balanced) sequences inside often eccentric bounds. It’s especially intriguing to see the vertical bands vibrating within the confines of an oblong pill shape, employed several times by Evans to peculiar and dynamic effect.

David Buckingham works with a palette similar to Evans’, but the high acidity here is not the result of a choice of acrylics. In good California-assemblage, Buckingham renders his panels from found and welded metal, incorporating the rusty tints and textures and the oddly sweet colors of midcentury tin cans and car parts into everything from minimalist abstractions to evocations of folk quilts to wise-ass signage (“ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME,” “CHARLIE DON’T SURF,” “FEEL LUCKY PUNK?”). Buckingham’s formula is as flatfooted as they come, and that only enhances the bad-boy charm of the resulting hyper-plaques. Ned Evans at William Turner Gallery, Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; thru May 12. (310) 453-0909. David Buckingham at the Gallery of Functional Art, Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sun., noon-4 p.m.; thru May 13. (310) 829-6990. Both at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica.

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