If MoMA’s 2002 exhibition “Drawing Now” emancipated drawing from second-class citizenship, “Flip: A Drawing Exhibition” makes the case for artists who have carved out and refined its mantle. The show’s 14 featured practitioners share an acute sensitivity to the touch of ink to paper, and a will to innovate. Paul Noble’s etched diptych features beanstalks and totem poles, tiny people and quirky Bosch-esque oddities. Rachel Goodyear’s discreet group of antlered heads and knotty tree trunks, Anton Henning’s chainlinks and fences on thin blue paper, and Margarete Hahner’s four drawings of a girl and her blow-up bear traffic in the delicate and minimal. Des Lawrence’s obituary portraits of James Coburn, Barry Sheene and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin reinvigorate memorial portraiture. Adam Dant’s R. Crumb-ish social medallions and Olivia Plender’s blown up, arty/mod silk-screen prints take their cues from graphic novels and comic books. And, tucked in the corner, George Bolster’s portrait of Jesus and stigmata-inflected religious scenes on sycamore gesture toward the everlasting.

“Flip: A Drawing Exhibition,” Chung King Project, 936 Chung King Road, L.A. (213) 625-1802. Thru Aug. 12.

—Melissa Lo

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.