LA CIENEGA AREA

John Okulick’s new work sets one to thinking that maybe the real pioneers of Post-Modernism were the special-effects designers of TV’s “Star Trek” and the “Star Wars” films. Their imaginative back-to-the-future architecture and space ships seem to predate much that has shown up in the fine arts. One look at Okulick’s “Warning Gate” and you can hear Captain Kirk intoning, “Open a hailing frequency, Lt. Uhura. Mr. Sulu, get that alien vessel on the screen--full magnification.”

Okulick, of course, has a solid reputation based on years of making geometric wooden wall reliefs--rather too slick for their own good but intriguing on account of their careful fool-the-eye perspectives. This new baker’s dozen trades visual clarity for a cacophony of bristling forms that muddle their illusionism. One is uncomfortably aware of hunks of wood that have been run through an angled saw blade.

There may be some muffled social irony directed at President Reagan’s SDI project in works like “Launch Pad,” but basically these energetic hybrids have taken a tip from Frank Stella’s Baroque reliefs, trading entertaining coherence for entertaining decorative effect. (Asher/Faure Gallery, 612 N. Almont Drive, to April 11.)