Little Tree Gallery : Pablo Guardiola - Read, Read, Re-Read.

Comment: The show's photographic, mainly-- a selection of images with no immediate obvious commonality. So I ask Pablo Guardiola about the art, and he proceeds to explain. I listen for a while and respond, "In other words, it means this?" He says, "Not really," and explains some more. I retrench and re-listen until I think I get it and then say, "Oh... so it means this." He says, "Not really," and explains some more. I scrunch up, telepathically exhort my neocortex to ferkin' pay attention this time, commence to concentrate, and eventually begin to nod like maybe I get it-- but I don't believe I do, and thank Guardiola for his time. I also try the press kit, but that doesn't help either. So OK. As near as I can tell, Guardiola's art might be about the written word, particularly with respect to newspapers, and maybe that you can interpret different stories in different ways depending on how you read them, and maybe you can do the same with photographs too, or something like that. Then again, maybe not.

Helpful artist tip #4723, paragraph 3: Provide a quick fix for the dabblers. It's OK to explain your art in terms that anyone can understand.

Next.

***

Receiver Gallery : Saved - Jake Watling and Bill Dunlap.

Comment: I enter the gallery smack in the middle of a mesmerizing paganesque far side performance by experimental musician Bob Marsh. He's couched in a haunting tin mask, a washboard-style metal necktie, and about six metal fingerpicks, and he's gyrating and chanting and shrieking in gibberish, rhythmically running the fingerpicks up and down the tie, like he's layin' down some kinda voodoo incantation. He ramps and ramps and ramps it to crescendo, while everyone stands there spellbound and staring. Suddenly he stops. Silence. You really gotta experience this dude. He's somethin' else.

Meanwhile back in artland, Jake Watling tells me his bright folklike genre paintings reference memories of his strict religious upbringing, and Bill Dunlap says his ghoulish creature-based art reflects his move from San Francisco to the Maryland outback.

***

Silverman Gallery : A Notion of Boredom with Dandi Wind + Fashion Installations.

Fashion designers: Carolina Amaris, The Seventh Heart, Brian Lichtenberg, Filius Design.

Comment: It's not really an art show-- I misread the press release-- it's more fashion and music/performance. But I'm here so I might as well shoot a few pics.

***

Ar+Space Gallery : Aaron Hegert - ...and life continues to be free and easy.

Comment: Grim gritty images of Amsterdam and San Francisco. But wait. Not so fast. Look again-- upside is evident. Priced right. $40-$250

***