Wilshire Center

Photographer Jo Ann Callis has something new to show these days, and it’s as much of a surprise as if she decided to pack it up and move to Soho. She’s concocting easel painting-size gelatin photographs that mingle elements of ‘30s advertisements for luxury goods, black-and-white film stills, store window design, Surrealistic photography of the ‘20s and the witty part of conceptual art.

“Lap” is a portrait of a plump armchair, modeled of unfired clay and stagily lit against a gray blanket falling into soft folds. With an upholstered frame (in gray material with a black-and-white nub that vaguely resembles brush strokes), the image combines a cozy, vintage feel with a weird theatrical chill.

In “October,” a couple of visored caps (one balanced on a pole stuck in the ground, the other perched on the sliding top of a wooden box) laconically face the same direction. It’s Pop and the kid on the farm (complete with puddle-lake) mingling with the kitsch of too-aggressive flower-patterned wallpaper and the hearty aestheticism of a frame made of double rows of thick bamboo. (Richard Green Gallery, 830 N. La Brea Ave., to Jan. 12.)