In his new work, Ronald Davis is dealing with geometric spatial illusionism in flat format. It has been correctly pointed out that he does not aim merely for achitectural trompe l’oeil in the sense of hiding, or denying, the surface. The material he uses—vinyl poured in layers over fiberglass—creates a glossy surface which reflects light and thus continuously articulates the flatness of the real plane. However, in the works presently shown at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery, one becomes aware of a much greater range and complexity of purpose than a simple projection of two simultaneous modes of

The Irving Blum Gallery is showing a suite of lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly, made in a French workshop in 1966. They bear a tangential relationship to Kelly’s sculpture which sets them apart from the hard-edge paintings. The suite comprises twelve prints depicting leaves, flowers and fruit, drawn sparsely with a firm and yet buoyant stroke, executed in black ink on large sheets of white paper. There are five Cyclamen, three Camelias, a Tangerine, Grapefruit and Lemon. What is most extraordinary about them is that they incorporate virtually every stylistic earmark of Kelly’s recent sculpture

Painter Courtenay Moon and sculptor Thomas Bang are shown at the Esther-Robles Gallery. Moon paints in a lightweight Abstract Expressionist vein except that he is not basically inclined to abstraction. His recent tendency to disguise directly recognizable subject matter is superficial, and with the exception of one work (Blue Fall) the paintings read as thin colorful washings around imposed objects. Emerging Table is so titled to call attention to the subject; however the table does not emerge at all—instead it sits sketched in black over the fabric of painted ground, looking very much like an

David Elder’s new sculptures at the Comara Gallery look as if they would shiver and retreat at a touch, like sea anemones. What they evoke of subtly perverse sexual imagery is their most positive, if not original, attribute. After one has optimistically gotten beyond their Freudian grip, what is left seems merely residue from innumerable other attempts—some better and some worse—to arrive at a synthesis between sexual, or funky, or surreal, imagery and the hard shiny materials of the modern technological era. Elder’s creations of black and white or black and yellow epoxy-coated fiberglass and