Viewing Group Dynamics Through a Funhouse Mirror

What’s in an “ism?� It’s a relevant question to bring to Roger Dolin’s current exhibition of paintings at the Orlando Gallery, with the self-generated title “Social Distortionism.�

The title’s implication, that of taking an unconventional look at the nature of human interaction, is plain to see in Dolin’s figurative style. He captures seemingly candid scenes and then subjects people to various distorting tactics.

Flesh becomes silly putty, the stuff of a funhouse mirror or, more relevant to the post-digital realm, computer-degenerated imagery. A central irony is that, while Dolin is dealing with snapshots taken voyeuristically and on the fly, he then softens the reality of his findings with loosy-goosy manipulations. Two misshapen older men talk on the street in “The Death of My Father,� which could be about the distorting effects of memory.

In “Museum,� Rodin’s statue “The Thinker� sits stolidly on his pedestal, looming over a courtyard with wobbly people who seem less real than the artwork.

Maybe that’s the point, as in the in-jokey “Orlando Gallery,� where rubber-faced art watchers at an opening are swimming in idle revelry and, well, “distortionism.� An unstated message with this art relates to another question: How well do we really know each other, as opposed to the more fixed, reliable realities of culture and our urban environments?

Also showing is Mary Streeter, who freely blends ideas and images in fantasy-tinged works revealing more imagination than focus.

BE THERE

Exhibits--Roger Dolin, “Social Distortionism,� and Mary Streeter, “Exposed,� through Jan. 1 at Orlando Gallery, 14553 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. (818) 789-6012.