From the late 1950s through the '70s, John Mason made monuments that sometimes riffed on the prehistoric, like his 1957 ceramic Vertical Spear form. Or sometimes he made pop products seem prehistoric, like the 1959 ceramic Blue Wall, which looks like petrified blue jeans spread across a wall. The ceramic totems in his current show at David Kordansky, made between 1997 and 2002 and worth seeing from every side, feel hipper and smoother than anything he's made before. There's the angular gold star and the one that resembles a blown-up drill bit, things a kid inspired by Mason might make. But it's better that it's Mason updating himself. 3143 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City; through Oct. 26. (310) 558-3030, davidkordanskygallery.com.

Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Sept. 7. Continues through Oct. 26, 2013

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