Tel Est La Guerre: Waffle Holes of Waterloo is the latest body of work by Jophen Stein, who has somehow managed to incorporate the waffle and its batter into history. Stein is not as heavy-handed with the Napoleonic Wars as, say, historians would be, but his themes of the relationships between past and present are put forward tidily through a variety of motifs. Irony and a play on words help move Stein’s narrative along towards a parody of contemporary society and the past that led to it.

Artist: Jophen Stein
+ projectgalleryla.com

Sebastian Lemm’s upcoming show features a body of work called Schattenseite, which means dark side or down side in reference to the process that results in eerie hyper-realistic photography. Lemm uses a combination of techniques that include 6x7 film, digital scanning and image editing to see his ideas become creations that are at once abstract and yet very specific. Partially double-exposed pictures become portraits of branches that are vibrant compositions with much movement and force.

Artist: Sebastian Lemm
+ sebastianlemm.com

Award-winning photographer Chris Anthony has a new show at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. I’m the Most Normal Person I Know is a series of works that put Anthony’s collection of vintage lenses from 1870 to 1910 to good use. Anthony uses materials such as cheesecloth, doll parts, papier maché, velvet, dress forms, mannequins and tattered clothes to create haunting scenes of a place just beyond the world we know.

Artist: Chris Anthony
+ coreyhelfordgallery.com

Brian Biedul’s Spaces series is a collection of oil paintings that focus on the meeting point of outside and inside space as beheld in the mind of the viewer who sees a figure trapped within the threshold of the canvas. The larger than life figures pushing against the edges of the rectangle are based on a simple male model (although the female is featured in the square paintings) in order to avoid any mistaken ideas pertaining to social commentary. The viewer must concentrate on the form of the figure and the way the form creates the space.

Artist: Brian Biedul
+ biedul.com

Paint A 'Licious: The Pain-Free Way to Achieving Your Naked Ambitions by Joanne Gair is about her specialty: body-painting. Unlike Body Painting: Masterpieces by Joanne Gair, this book focuses more on the fun of hiding or camouflaging painted bodies into elaborate scenes. A child blends into the Christmas scenery as he waits for Santa’s arrival; a woman doing aerobics has a paint job that makes her appear slimmer; an older woman “does” ballet moves while her painted partner, blending into the curtains, holds her up. Gair has taken a lot of time to create the scenarios, paint the bodies and then offer details regarding the shoot. This is a lighthearted coffee table book that begs the question, “when is nudity not nudity?” and that allows Gair to use the body, yet again, as a canvas, and to have fun doing so at the same time.

Hardcover, 128 pages. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005. $13.57 at Amazon.

+ Paint A Licious at Amazon

Who knew the appeal of moustached babies? What a great discovery over at Design*Sponge. Ashley G’s bundled babies are up to no good. Gummy art by YaYa Chou consists of gummi bears as materials for bearskin rugs and chandeliers, as well a ceramic child in gummi bear clothes. Via Notcot.

Virginia Fleck takes consumerism and creates wall-sized mandalas out of it, by way of used plastic bags. Shopping is spiritual. We worship at the altar of symbols, brands and logos. By making repetitive patterns out of this tangible excess of material, Fleck numbs the viewer much the way the insatiable need for more is at work. In a world where abundance does not equal enough, but ever more, we keep filling the bags.

Artist: Virginia Fleck
+ virginiafleck.com

Pedro Bakker melds his rural experiences with his take on art history. Based in Friesland, Bakker’s art theory has “animals as art historians,” as this artist aims to explode any art world pretensions. In this series called Favorites, cows and artists such as Ensor, Cézanne and Munch share the scene, along with Bakker’s captions. In his artist statement he says, “As a human being I draw to dispel my fears and to digest my house husband experiences. I am not an esthetic hero, because I can speak and I am productive.”

Artist: Pedro Bakker
+ witzenhausengallery.nl

Nick Rodrigues is a Boston-based performance sculptor whose unusual work is themed on human interaction. Rodrigues incorporates these pieces into public settings and captures public reaction on video. The Porta Party is a booth the size of a standard telephone booth or portable toilet, but when placed on a street corner with party sounds emanating, it gets more attention than the standard services would. The diePod is a statement on how anyone born now will have some sort of electronic device on them until their death, and the Portable Cellular Phone Booth speaks of avoiding real time interactions. Shown here are stills from the videos on Rodrigues’ website.

Artist: Nick Rodrigues
+ nickrodrigues.com

Yigal Ozeri’s new oil paintings, in an exhibition entitled Genesis, focus on Priscilla, a young woman who is at one with the earth. These rich paintings are like tapestries of twigs, rock, water and vegetation left uncontrolled. Priscilla’s hair is related to the vines; the pools of water and the leaves of the trees are her resting places. She is as natural as the elements around her. Ozeri’s technical skill is evident in these paintings that can be mistaken for photographs.

Artist: Yigal Ozeri
+ mikeweissgallery.com

Mitsy Groenendijk’s monkey sculptures reflect a human need to control nature. Human characteristics are sometimes easier to examine if demonstrated on some “other”, and the monkey is the perfect foil for our foibles. It does not take long for the viewer’s eye to adapt to the image of the monkey in place of the women or girls that would have, or should have, been Rosy, Tina and the Kindred Spirits.

Artist: Mitsy Groenendijk
+ mitsygroenendijk.com