'Contrast'

Through Nov. 20, Low Gallery

TRADITIONAL VANITAS VANITATUM still-life paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries feature skulls and other symbols – such as watches, burning candles, hourglasses, and flowers – to convey life's impermanence and the transitory nature of pleasurable pursuits. The skull remains a persistent symbolic figure in art, from highbrow to lowbrow, tattoos to trompe l'oeil, and its symbolism is constantly being adapted for contemporary purposes. Jeremy Fish – whose work is featured at Low Gallery's "Contrast" exhibit along with Tiffany Bozic, Mike Giant, and Mat O'Brien – uses the skull more as a vehicle, a structure, or a kind of scaffolding to support someone or something else. Neither his nor the other artists' skull imagery in this exhibition of black-and-white illustrations is laden with heavy symbolism, though. More so, his skulls are approachable, even funny. They serve as snail shells, wear saddles, are pirate ship vessels and top trees. Basically, they do everything a skull is not supposed to do, which in times past meant sitting on a table acting deathly. Bozic's naturalist graphite-on-paper illustrations have a more ephemeral feeling, and the "contrast" at play is more in how she merges animals together or with other elements. In one, an insect's head becomes a violin. In another, a pair of sea horses' tails devolve into intertwined ligaments as, rather than being submerged in water, they float above a stand of trees. Her drawings are all untitled, leaving the viewer to imagine how these animals have found themselves in the curious positions in which Bozic has rendered them. Giant's contributions serve as an interesting component to his mini-retrospective at Future Primitive Sound. Ecstasy of Truth, Mat O'Brien's portrait of bat-shit crazy filmmaker Werner Herzog, is captioned with a quote: "First question from audience (Q & A): 'What is the purpose of film?' Herzog replied: 'What is the purpose of children?' " O'Brien's work is imbued with a literary sensibility, and similar punch lines appear throughout his illustrations. If Fish's trope is the skull, O'Brien's is the eye, and its ubiquitous presence is not as unnerving as you would think. You feel watched over rather than under surveillance. Wed.-Sun., noon-7 p.m., 487 14th St., SF. (415) 552-4057, www.lowgallery.com. (Katie Kurtz)

Email Katie Kurtz at katiejkurtz@gmail.com.