HOLLYWOOD

In “Burden of Dreams,” the Les Blank documentary on German film maker Werner Herzog, Herzog delivers a memorable soliloquy in which he describes the jungle as a throbbing, malignant monster, endlessly spreading and consuming all that falls in its path. Expressionist landscapes by Olga Seem are an eloquent visualization of that idea.

Compressing three-dimensional space into an interlocking network of flat shapes, her work employs a simple style of composition reminiscent of Cezanne. However, her taste for primitive colors yanks her off the peak of Mt. St. Victoire and sends her south of the border. Conjuring a lush, tropical place alive with alchemical possibilities, Seem implies that the unwary traveler could easily be obliterated by this untamed landscape. In “Red Mountain,” a range of vibrant red foothills lords over a thicket of menacing foliage; things loom slightly out of scale in this carnivorous land where cacti grow alarmingly big and stand too close for comfort. (Goski Gallery, 1605 N. Cahuenga Blvd., to May 3.)