Rachelle Sawatsky’s new work in “Reincarnation Clash” (all works 2016) advances her work’s established threads of off-kilter humor paired with an experimental formal sensibility. The show consists of abstract wall-hanging ceramic works; figurative paintings on canvas; and a poem, offered as a takeaway. Beguiling and complex, and reading as if inspired by a dream or an acid trip, the poem sets a tone of playfulness wedded with introspection. One can’t help but feel disappointment in the manifestation of the show’s visual components and their relationships; the artworks don’t quite live up to the engrossing smack of the poem with which the show shares its name, and which delivers charming lines like this one: She discovers that there is no pilot/beyond the metal door and wins an award.

Rachelle Sawatsky, Interior (2016), courtesy of the artist and China Art Objects.

The most enjoyable aspect of Sawatsky’s works on canvas is her adept fauvist palette and wonderfully gauche style of mark-making. At their strongest, these works evoke both the painterly pleasure and creepiness of Ensor and the naivety of Rousseau. Less satisfying are the overall compositions, which at times fall too heavily toward illustration and feel a bit sophomoric compared to her earlier works on paper, which succeed because of their rough quality and tantalizingly bizarre subject matter. One gets the general sense that the new paintings are a little too controlled, overworked, and “finished.” They conjure the psychedelic, dreamlike quality of her poem, but Sawatsky’s work operates best when the subject matter is left more ambiguous than literal.

Rachelle Sawatsky, The Animal Lover’s Guide to Tragedy/The Emotional Person’s Guide to Plot (2016), courtesy of the artist and China Art Objects.

The surfaces of Sawatsky’s wall-hanging ceramics are doused and mottled with screen print ink, ceramic glaze, and watercolor. Irregularly shaped, drenched in diaphanous veils of hard-edged color and hints of patterning, these works operate in a quieter mode, but aren’t given sufficient psychic space to fully articulate themselves.

Rachelle Sawatsky, Untitled (2016), courtesy of the artist and China Art Objects.

Rachelle Sawatsky, Untitled (2016), courtesy of the artist and China Art Objects.

They come off more as punctuation for the larger works than part of the show itself. Sawatsky is an accomplished colorist, poet, humorist, and draftsman, but her strength seems to lie in works that lend themselves to a less polished format than many of those in “Reincarnation Clash.”

Rachelle Sawatsky, Untitled (2016), courtesy of the artist and China Art Objects.

Rachelle Sawatsky, Untitled (2016), courtesy of the artist and China Art Objects.

Rachelle Sawatsky, “Reincarnation Clash,” May 21-July 9, 2016 at China Art Objects, 6086 Comey Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90034. www.chinaartobjects.com.