There is a distinct restraint in Lay Me Down in Praise, 2022, Justen LeRoy’s three-channel—and to my mind, three chapter—video installation at Art + Practice (the show is a collaboration between A + P and the California African American Museum in Los Angeles). The multidisciplinary LA-born and -raised artist believes that melismas—vocal runs popularized by R&B music and rooted in the songs of the Black church, which demonstrate a singer’s range and emotional dexterity—have analogs in various geological processes and activities. Yet even with this all-encompassing conceit, it’s noteworthy that