George Herms has explored many different media over the years—painting, sculpture, collage, performance, photography, and poetry—but he is perhaps best known for his assemblages. Like the Surrealist object poets (particularly André Breton), Herms is able to combine elements of strict formalism, appropriated language, and random placement to create works that appear self-contained, even inevitable, yet also part of a broader program that is completely personal and often quite illogical. His inventive recycling of discarded junk makes one initially think of artists such as Ed Kienholz and Joseph

John White unveiled his latest adventure in screwball structuralism, Second Stories, 1986, by informing the audience that it was his last performance. The veteran performance artist, who has worked in both live and static art since 1969, presented a fascinating farewell piece, both wacky and poignant, that was perhaps designed to dovetail his stage work with his new real-life “job,” that of harried and dedicated father. Second Stories parodied and skewered both roles.

White is well known in California for his quasi-logical word games and nutty choreography solo performances in which he appeared