Tiffany Bozic is a new traditionalist informed by Audubon and Rousseau. What Nick Cave is to lyrics, she is to paint. Hailing from a small town in Arkansas, Bozic has built her young career on surrealist, anatomical/botanical fantasies; beautifully rendered yet sometimes haunting and gruesome, void of irony and absolute with sincerity. Morphing forms — human, animal or otherwise — she employs psychological riddles, challenging the viewer to decide where life begins or ends. Her new L.A. show, the second courtesy of BLK/MRKT, serves up a new body of work influenced by a recent trip to Papua New Guinea. She was a companion to an evolutionary biologist on an ornithological expedition, and her travels have helped evolve her style into her most intriguing work to date. BLK/MRKT Gallery, 6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 837-1989; Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; thru Oct. 21.
—Shelley Leopold