The newly opened A.L.A. Gallery (Arlene Lind Associates) presented the first one man show of paintings by Mark Shroeder, a recent graduate of the California College of Arts and Crafts. These exhibits comprised a series of rather morbid biomorphic fantasies combining sexual and pathological anatomical allusions in a manner definitely not designed for comfortable contemplation by the squeamishly impressionable; for here was a kaleidoscope of imagery that seemed like the nightmares of a hypochondriacal nervous breakdown—imagery obviously inspired by medical illustrations of organic deformities, foetal abnormalities, diseased genital organs, ulcerating mucous membranes, cysts, fistulas and chancres. Consistent with such preoccupations, Mr. Schroeder, who paints in oils and acrylics on canvas, limits his palette to pale washes of nauseating greenish creams, creamy pinks and pinkish browns closely approximating that waxy spectrum of artificial epidermal and epithelial hues characteristic of the glossy color plates in old pathology textbooks.

—Palmer D. French