The handwritten text on the lobby wall of Patrick Painter Inc. explains that reclusive, genius rocker Conrad M. has disappeared. No one knows much about Conrad, it goes on to say, except his friend Rinus Van de Velde, who was so much like Conrad that the two often were confused with one another. Rinus Van de Velde is also the name of the show and of the artist who did all the large, intimately detailed drawings in it. It's not clear whether the drawings, each showing the same man sprawled shirtless next to a guitar or sleeping on a sidewalk or digging in an alley, depict Rinus or the presumably fictional Conrad. But this slipperiness is the point. 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica; through Oct. 27. (310) 264-5988, patrickpainter.com.

Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Sept. 22. Continues through Oct. 27, 2012

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