LA CIENEGA AREA

A current exhibition pairs a 20-year span of Donald Judd’s sleek, geometric sculpture with Peter Halley’s new Day-Glo paintings. The gleaming surfaces of Judd’s stainless steel boxes, the structural variations of a 10-unit floor piece and the unexpected juxtapositions of color in recent painted wall pieces all project the idea of Judd as an innovator who pushes the limits of a rigid genre. A new, untouchably gorgeous work of anodized aluminum and copper confronts us with the sensual aspects of an artist who has long chafed against his Minimalist label. When this shelf-like construction reflects the blinding oranges and pinks of Halley’s canvases, it seems to cast restraint into an art historical scrap heap.

Halley’s work, on the other hand, leaves nothing to the circumstances of an installation. He simply overwhelms his audience with color. Measuring up to 16 feet wide, these aggressive paintings are almost too bright to behold. We’ve seen too many perfectly straight edges to be impressed with his craftsmanship and Halley’s occasional prison-bar motifs are only formal devices that get mixed up with a social ill, but you can’t deny the clout of that color. If you like being visually bludgeoned by art, here’s your chance to pig out. (Margo Leavin Gallery, 817 N. Hilldale Ave., to April 4.)