In her first exhibition on home turf since a 2001 retrospective at LA MoCA, and her first solo show at Regen Projects since 1997/98, Liz Larner positioned herself as a dedicated, if sly, student of her own sculptural genealogy and a vital force in the emergence of Los Angeles as an epicenter of sculptural innovation. Compared to the retrospective’s centerpiece, Untitled, 2001, a massive fractal sphere finished in iridescent green-purple automotive paint, Larner’s new work feels rougher around the edges, and better for it.

Occupying the corner opposite the gallery entrance, Diamond Deserts,

Gary Lee Boas’s photograph In front of Badlands at the corner of Christopher and West Street (all works undated, from the series “New York Sex,” 1979–85) shows a rainbow coalition of male types on a sunny day at the intersection of gay and gay: gym bunnies, shirtless exhibitionists, older gents. In addition to setting the scene, the surrounding greenery, blue sky, and balmy light can also be regarded as signs of the somewhat paradoxical naturalness of the men fraternizing and hooking up, caught—or about to be—in the calm eye of gathering hurricane AIDS.

Eugène Atget photographed a Paris that

On the evidence of this, his first solo exhibition outside Germany, Sebastian Ludwig might be a descendant of Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Dürer, M. C. Escher, Anselm Kiefer, or all of the above. At Patrick Painter, Inc., Ludwig exhibited landscape paintings combining expressionist brushwork and interwoven pattern with illusionism both naturalist and mannered, and a mix of representational styles that was visually cohesive despite the diversity of its origins.

The coloration of the show’s eight paintings evokes tinted photographs and faded tapestries, dark and light tones defining layered