Art Review

Dazzling Passion: Manuel Ocampo’s massive paintings are professionally provocative, which is not to say that their politics are insincere but rather that the artist has perfected a signature style.

This comprehensive retrospective--encompassing paintings, drawings and sculptures dating back a decade, as well as a brand-new installation--makes clear why Ocampo generates both passionate support and disdainful commentary.

His standard repertory of swastikas and crucifixes, rats and Madonnas, devils and angels, plus an inventory of contemporary kitsch from pornography to consumer packaging, is typically laid out, like goods at an open-air market, on faux-antique Spanish colonial-style surfaces. History may be the story of the victors, but Ocampo is clearly at pains to insist that that history is bogus--thus, for example, the flamboyant mimicry of the ravages of the time.

This mistrust of the official version of events is the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the work, which tends to paint the world in broad, uninflected strokes. Still, Ocampo frequently hits the mark, and his passion, as well as his anger, are often dazzling to behold.

* Track 16 Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave., C-1, Santa Monica, (310) 264-4678, through Nov. 15. Closed Sunday and Monday.