Aspects of Erotica

The trick to making erotic art effective is finding a delicate balance between the erogenous and the aesthetic. Each must get its due weight and be kept from beating up the other.

That doesn’t always happen in the dense sampling of work now at Gallery One One One, which celebrates its one-year, one-month anniversary with the show “Off on One’s Self.”

As an exhibition title, “Off on One’s Self” is perhaps more revealing than intended about the indulgence of some of the work. But there is enough humor and creativity among the 100-plus works by 44 artists to make it a titillating cornucopia.

Visitors to the gallery are ushered gently into the eroticism via Mark Matthews’ painting of dancing tongues and Andres Pinedo’s fetishistic “Footsie” placed in the foyer.

Inside the gallery, it’s a different story, with Frank Rozasy’s xerography of nudes scattered over the floor, and provocative work like Marie Bain’s “Stand and Deliver”--dogs in the act--emphasizing the eros of the occasion.

Erotic art can be discreet as well. Jim Curtis’ etchings of carnally engaged couples are influenced by ancient Japanese erotic art, and Kitty Botke’s monotypes are rough hewn, yet dazzling, nudes.

There are genital images and sculptures in unexpected places throughout the gallery, in itself a funny touch. Doug Lipton depicts phallic forms with the colored pegs of the toy “Light Bright,” in a piece he calls “Tower of Power.”

Perhaps the most alarming example, though, is also one of the most subtle: With Loren Chapman’s lovingly detailed glass sculpture of entangled genitalia, a medium normally considered decorative or frilly gets a kick in the pants.

Considering the sexually charged context, Paul Linhard’s sleek, ambisexual wood sculpture seems less abstract than it would in a more neutral space. Keith Puccinelli’s “Mangel,” vaguely suggesting a nude male, is a sculpture intuitively fashioned from funky materials.

Artists who have previously shown in the gallery offer some of the more rewarding work here. Tom Nordstrom’s Polaroid triptych “Joshua Tree” juxtaposes a reddened sunset sky and a sultry half-clad woman on a motel bed in a vignette about passions on the fringe.

Kirk Saber turns erotica inside out, through replications and image distortions, while Nora Yukon’s tiny, meticulous box assemblages hold a fetishistic fascination.

What is the message underscoring the exhibition? In the end, this rambling, apolitical erotic art show defines the very nature of eroticism: The impulses may be universal but the particulars vary greatly.

Art at the College

Emanual Cosentino, an art teacher at Ventura College showing his work in the school’s Gallery II, has something intriguing to say about the art of capturing light.

His paintings, rendered in a style approaching photo realism, effectively depict the brittle light of autumn late in the day, when life and landscape seem especially alive and vulnerable.

The light itself becomes the principal focus and lure, even when the subject is as striking as in “Bacchanal,” with picnickers disrobing behind bushes in a remote field, with the city and ocean in the crisp-edged distance.

Right down to the title, “448 N. Spaulding Ave.” depicts the specificity of a place, a funky interior where roommates lounge amid cracking paint--actual cracking paint on the canvas. Time is taking its toll.

Meanwhile, at the New Media Gallery, three sculptors offer three distinctly different approaches to the figure. Hy Farber fuses and compresses them, from the Afro-Cubist organization of the woman in “HAIR” to the seamless integration of musician and his instrument in “Bass Player.”

Carol Setterlund shows life-size figures, placed around the room like curious sentries, including the headless, armless “Witness.” Annette Bird’s impressive work consists of small, parable-like tableaux, where figures, mystical creatures and symbolic objects vie for space and power.

BE THERE

“Off on One’s Self,” erotic art show through March 6 at Gallery One One One, 111 Dos Caminos, Ventura. Gallery hours: noon-5:30 p.m., Tue.-Sat.; 641-0111.

Emanuel Cosentino paintings and “Re-Configuring: Three Sculptors Interpret a Classic Theme,” ends Fri. at Ventura College galleries, 4667 Telegraph Road. Call for gallery hours; 648-8974.