LA CIENEGA AREA

Lois Lane’s new paintings are a dream-struck cross between abstraction and figuration. In pale, washy expanses of oil on canvas, she sets crisp silhouettes adrift amid sweeping gestures of liquid pigment. A rudimentary figure with cropped hands and feet soars in a fan-shaped space in one large canvas, while a headless white creature spreads its wings in another. In still other works, overlapping figures emerge from what at first appears to be pure abstraction.

Some of these tucked-away people are rather like svelte women in evening gowns, swaying to the rhythm of the painting. And even when the figures seem to have their feet on the ground, they seem weightless and almost diaphanous. So much so that these free-spirited works put one in mind of Isadora Duncan, dancing barefoot in a forest.

Lane’s images set off dozens of associations, which seems odd because they are so transitory. It’s her expansive sense of space and movement that allows her to capture the feel of fleeting experience. She’s also very good at pulling blushing warmth from thin paint and rich nuances from vast arcs of grayed color.

Three heavy-handed collage-paintings and one bright canvas exhibited in the back gallery break the dreamy mood of the pale paintings. Each of the collages combines pictures snipped from old magazines with a big, black, painted shape--a flattened house, a fan and a rectangle. These pieces have the look of tough work, but as you wend your way through the dated images of perfect people, flower arrangements and living rooms, they soften into nostalgia laced with a wry comment on the phoniness of life in the media. Interesting but confusing. Because her intent finally isn’t clear, the collages fade away while the paintings live on in memory. (Margo Leavin Gallery, 812 N. Robertson Blvd., to May 24.)