La Cienega Area

The last time Robert Stackhouse appeared here, he built a big, flattened ship of lath and suspended it from a ceiling. His current show--a nugget in the midst of rambling group exhibition--consists of relatively ordinary drawings. These works in watercolor, graphite and charcoal lack the presence of the major installations and site-specific sculptures that have won Stackhouse notice, but they serve quite nicely as romantic reminders of his penchant for nautical metaphors.

Never mind that one work depicts a juicy red snake; the general tone has the resonance of mythical voyages and personal journeys. As we gaze up into a ship’s hull, look through stilts of a pier-like structure or peer into sun-streaked corridors, we see more than literally defined spaces. The soaring shapes and liquid color allude to a dream world that escapes into the unconscious. (Koplin Gallery, 8225 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd., to July 2.)