Tonight the galleries of La Brea's historic Art 170 Building, Launch LA and Merry Karnowsky Gallery — whose owners happen to be married to each other — bring out a pair of new exhibitions whose timing may have been coincidental, but whose confluence couldn't be more perfect. Upstairs and up first at 6pm is Gina Stepaniuk: Not Your Mother's Landscape, a series of new and recent quasi-abstract landscape paintings that deftly combine the demands of classical, reverential depictions of the natural world with an urgent cautionary tale about abusing the planet we call both home and mother. Then at 8 p.m., the ground floor opens up for Victor Castillo: Under Heavy Measures, a group of canvas, watercolor, and sculptural work reflecting a kind of dystopian storybook realm threatened by the evils of commerce and industry. While stylistically quite different, each of these artists seeks to combine visions of a more innocent, idyllic past with dire warnings as to humanity's current path. Yet even in Stepaniuk's swirling atmospheres and Castillo's wayward watercolor shapes and encroaching forests there are also visual correspondences, as their various takes on pretty persuasion make for a lovely, ahem, marriage. Launch LA & Merry Karnowsky Gallery, 170 S. La Brea. Sat., Feb. 2, 6-11 p.m. ; both galleries open Thurs.-Sat., noon-6 p.m.; free. (323) 933.4408. launchla.org and mkgallery.com.

Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 2. Continues through Feb. 23, 2013

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