"Me, Myself, and Eye: Andrew Brandou, Howdy Pardner, and Dale Andrews"

POP SURREALISM In the "The Animal Self," a recent feature story in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, writer Charles Siebert reintroduces the idea of the scientific basis for animals having personalities. The concept that animals are capable of what we tend think of as strictly human characteristics (beyond just anecdotal observation of cats and dogs) had currency at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th but soon disappeared as a serious line of inquiry within psychology. In recent years a small pool of scientists has been conducting personality tests on animals and has discovered that octopuses can be shy, fruit flies can be bullies, and a certain species of female spider is fearless in the face of predators. Andrew Brandou, an illustrator and painter, demonstrates the ways in which these scientific findings might be true. The premise of Brandou's show "Me, Myself and Eye: Andrew Brandou, Howdy Pardner, and Dale Andrews" is a bit of camouflage — although it sounds like a three-person exhibition, the work is all by Brandou, working under his own name and two pseudonyms. Exploring animal's personalities isn't Brandou's expressed intention but, viewed in the light of science, we can begin to read more into his persistent use of anthropomorphism to depict the darker side of human nature. As Howdy Pardner, Brandou employs a laborious assembly-line method to achieve a flattened and airbrushed effect on what initially look like classic children's narratives but turn out to be narratives about war, police suppression, and rioting. As Andrew Brandou, he interprets anthropomorphism in his "After Audubon" series of exquisitely detailed watercolors depicting wild animals (like a jaguar) paired in situ with more recent pop incarnations (Hello Kitty). Art once lent itself more to understanding advances in science, and vice versa. Perhaps a return to this idea could provide new perspectives on a question that persists in both fields: What is human nature? (Katie Kurtz)

ME, MYSELF AND EYE: ANDREW BRANDOU, HOWDY PARDNER, AND DALE ANDREWS

Shooting Gallery. Through March 2. Tue.–Fri., noon–7 p.m.; Sat., noon–5 p.m., or by appt.

839 Larkin, SF. (415) 931-8035, www.shootinggallerysf.com