Iain Baxter, or, as he advertises himself, the N. E. Thing Company, is back in Los Angeles this year with five new “inflatables” at the Gallery 669. Judging alone from this exhibition, or even from his appearances here collectively, it would be awfully difficult to understand the claims that some seem to be making for him as single-handedly providing witness of a sudden great swell of fresh and serious artistic talent in Western Canada. This phenomenon becomes slightly more comprehensible when one grasps the indefatigability with which the N. E. Thing Co. is promoting itself as the quintessence

A generous sampling of recent acrylics by Jules Olitski at Nicholas Wilder Gallery demonstrates some slight shift in his recent direction. The major move is a more solid primary coat of pigment laid down in an even layer. Sprays of pink and green, larger dots than previously, are sprinkled across the purple surface, but now float before, in front of that surface. This sense of built up application extends to the addition of the striped strokes bordering along two edges and drawing attention to an upper corner. The loosely applied brushwork has been mixed with, or covered by, a thick layer of

At the David Stuart Galleries, Peter Voulkos confirms his continuing role as a major potter with a selection of yard high ceramic urns from a series of some two dozen in progress. Each form is a straightforward stacking of clearly differentiated cylindrical shapes. Flaring cone and flange-like shapes and a few gently oval profiles provide the relief of variety, for the surfaces are barely decorated by incising, and covered completely by a matte silverish black glaze. In intention they are entirely serious, rather somber, and certainly free from the bombastic Baroque rhythms of his recent

Three young object makers appear in their first gallery presentation with smallish works in plastic. The sparse white elegance of the Gallery 669 situation emphasizes the preciousness of each one. Paul Donin questions public attitudes with refined, private phallic substitutes that are hygienically transparent and thoughtfully provided with straps or handles. Obviously meant to surprise the naive, the more sophisticated viewer may expect to be bored and turn his attention to other matters. As esthetic objects they are little more than purely refined, and terribly vulnerable in their passionless

The members of a miscellaneous four-man show at the Molly Barnes Gallery fare just as divergently. Wall Batterton’s works, despite the promise of a word-of-mouth reputation, proved disappointing. He depends on patent derivativeness and a scattering of techniques and approaches more appropriate for a commercial art portfolio in their thin if openhanded slickness. Ray Smith is more than adequate in sequentially elaborated geometric paintings based on recent Op designs.

The funky fantasies of Michael Peters blend a variety of modes; comic strip formats, wild metamorphosis, biomorphic cartooning,