Santa Monica

The redoubtably named Luhring Augustine Hetzler gallery--a partnership of New York-based Luhring Augustine and Cologne-based Max Hetzler--has opened in Santa Monica with recent work by Los Angeles artist Stephen Prina. Suitably enough, one of his pieces is “Inaugural Mailing List,” a boxed set of invitations to the show stuffed in postmarked envelopes and addressed from merged mailing lists. The notion of treating a basic component of art gallery business as a study in ordering and classification is particularly Prina-esque.

A series of 24 identically-sized, computer-created prints gradually spell out a slogan reeking of corporate paternalism: “It’s in your own best interests.” Each piece, made of closely aligned horizontal strokes of blue or black graphic marker dye, contains either a graphic design (portions of the letters in the message) or a “blank” field of dye. The diskette that gave birth to the series is on view too, a mute, inanimate Maker in its own plexiglass display case.

The show also contains seven works from Prina’s “Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet.” Each framed piece of paper swizzled with ink wash is the same size as a particular Manet. The viewer’s devilishly taxing project is to re-imagine these paintings in their museum setting. (Luhring Augustine Hetzler, 1330 4th St., to Oct. 25.)