LA CIENEGA AREA

Artists, like yuppies, want it all these days and some of the most interesting ones light out in all directions. Instead of beating a logo to death, they paint, sculpt, draw, write, perform and concoct multimedia installations. Vernon Fisher, a Texas native who currently teaches at North Texas State University, hasn’t covered the entire spectrum of possibilities in his solo debut here, but he has an impressive range.

In his installation, “The Knight’s Move,� he paints on walls, a handmade blackboard and several volumes (a column, a ceramic vase and a cylinder); works with found objects (a urinal, a sink and an umbrella); makes conventionally framed pieces, and prints text on walls and in paintings. His words tell about the artist’s ineptitude as a child in pursuit of Easter eggs, a woman who recorded her life on tape, the metamorphosis of mice into bats, and the possibility of checking out films of our lives from an angel-librarian when we go to heaven.

A grim edge slices through the humor when we’re informed that the disembodied voices in drive-through bank windows belong to “horribly deformed� people or told about a girl who tries to track her wayward boyfriend. But, in general, this show is such a genial inquiry into the way things look and seem that it might be called “Fisher Figures It Out.� He explores perspective, what a cat sees and the way the Earth is flattened into a map, and he’s fond of eye-test charts. Images run from traditionally painted landscapes to silhouettes of comic-strip folk.

Such breadth isn’t necessarily a virtue, but Fisher handles it with aplomb. He has a light touch and such an engaging curiosity that he makes the world seem an endlessly fascinating place. (Asher/Faure, 612 N. Almont Drive, to June 21.)