Fantasy and reality encroach upon each another in “Works on Paper 1967-1995” by Ken Price (1935-2012) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran. Twenty-eight deceptively straightforward pictures draw you into nuanced realms where familiarity gives way to strangeness. In Price’s prepossessing drawings, abstract sculptures seem eerily alive; ashtrays harbor windows to mini-worlds; jaunty cars pictured on billboards appear as palpable as if they could drive away; and blazing factory smokestacks exude stately dignity even as they cough black clouds over moody lagoons. 

Ken Price, Picture Window (1994), Ink and Acrylic on Paper, 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (framed). Courtesy the artist and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles. Photo credit: Flying Studio

Price’s most striking series of drawings in this show depict SoCal scenes in a graphic style reminiscent of comic books. These mid-90’s renditions of LA appear surprisingly contemporary, partly because their subjects are generic urban banalities such as freeways, apartment buildings and cramped interiors. Addressing such perennial topics as car culture, pollution and wildfires, the Angeleno artist cast a skeptically fascinated eye on his hometown, wryly insinuating prosaic commercial foundations of society’s ideals. Security, Domesticality, Leisure (all works 1994) encapsulates suburban pretensions in a pink tract house, complete with neat green lawn, sandwiched between a foreground of gray road and a background of smoggy skyscrapers.

Ken Price, Made in L.A. (1994), Ink and Acrylic on Paper, 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (framed). Courtesy the artist and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles. Photo credit: Flying Studio

Price rendered smog with such delicacy that it seems an ironically beautiful enhancement to urban environs. In Made in L.A., LA’s imposing skyline shimmers fantastically, bringing to mind L. Frank Baum’s fictitious Oz. Just beyond rush-hour freeway traffic in Downtown, skyscrapers shrouded in golden light evoke an elusive fairyland.

Ken Price, Downtown (1994), Ink and Acrylic on Paper, 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (framed). Courtesy the artist and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles. Photo credit: Flying Studio

Set off by blue sky and muted hues outside, the interior space in Picture Window is colorless, matching the blanched auto conspicuously billboarded nearby. Similarly, the billboard outside the window in With Everything Turned Off, is completely blank, as are the television, door, table and divan: Perhaps this home just isn’t complete with the TV off and no giant ad to adorn one’s view.

Ken Price, “Works on Paper 1967-1995,” March 23 – May 4 at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, 1201 South La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA  90019, kaynegriffincorcoran.com