RUN IT UP THE FLAGPOLE

Calm down, Orrin Hatch; Jillian Kogan’s no flag desecrater. The artist, who’s spent the last couple of years making a name for herself by rejiggering the California state flag, has nothing but the best of intentions. “I’m interested in the concept of re-identifying it and playing on it, but never destroying it,” Kogan says of her deeply textured, large-scale makeovers of the symbol of our collective statehood. Riffing on such themes as drug abuse, firearm use and ethnic identity, Kogan’s sociopolitical pronouncements aren’t designed as judgments, just meta-collages of our complex realities. “California is the place people come to be saved,” she says. “It’s also the place people come to to get lost.” Ends Feb. 24. Ambrogi-Castanier Gallery. (310) 652-5511; www.ambrogicastaniergallery.com