Oakland Museum of California: L.A. Paint.

Artists: The Date Farmers (Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez), Brian Fahlstrom, Steve Galloway, Loren Holland, Hyesook Park, Steve Roden, Linda Stark, Don Suggs, Esther Pearl Watson, and Robert Williams.

Review and images by John Casey: Philip Linares, Chief Curator of Art at the Oakland Museum of California, contends that Los Angeles is the new capital of American art. The work of eleven L.A. artists representing four distinct expressive modes of painting-- abstraction, narrative, surrealist/fantasy, and "Lowbrow"-- are on display. Regardless of your taste in a particular style of painting or whether you feel the premise of the show is successful, this is a compelling juxtaposition of work. And better yet, it's being shown in Oakland.