Robert Cremean exhibits his most recent sculpture at the Esther-Robles Gallery. The show includes several large, elaborate, polytriptych wall panels that combine drawing, relief sculpture, and color. These open from equally embellished double doors to reveal four separate panels all joined in one large composition of figures placed against a strongly vertical and horizontal background. The effect is dramatic and the panels are skillfully executed. His reclining nudes of laminated wood appear partially as three-dimensional cutouts, and Cremean’s elaborations both in color and design on the checkerboard motif are also strongly apparent in these massive forms. In his smaller pieces on the theme of Mother and Child, the figures are partly drawn and partly sculptured, and the deep tenderness of the maternal embrace is subtly conveyed.

—Estelle Kurzen