WILSHIRE CENTER

A clean and commodious new gallery space launches itself with a debut exhibition for Los Angeles painter Robert Ramirez. He does a perfectly credible job of juggling the established conventions of Neo-Expressionism. Beneath gobs and slashes of raw-hued pigment lurk images of horses, women and--mostly--monumental male nudes. Everybody is suffering some silent agony even though they appear perfectly young and hale. If the point is that youth gives itself a hard time even when there is nothing wrong, the theme does not evoke much sympathy. Neither does the notion that a robust and energetic painter is carrying on like a tragedian because that is the thing to do.

The whole exercise is so self-consciously romantic that Ramirez is able to title one work “Naked Existential Warrior” and another “Gericault’s Horse.” He never, however, makes a convincing case for his manifest content because it is constantly contradicted by the energy of his intrinsic content, the paintings themselves. Clearly the artist is in command of basics from good painterly attack to fundamentally sound drawing influenced by mentors from Siqueiros to his teacher Arnold Mesches. Ramirez has his tools and may eventually figure out what to build with them. (Fiona Whitney Gallery, 962 N. La Cienega Blvd. to Feb. 28.)