Pulling this column together every couple of months is enlightening and disheartening; so many exhibits out there – yet proportionally, still so few women artists. It occurred to me that those who read this listing might see that women are showing and not recall the larger picture. So I thought, in terms of group shows at least, I would try to give an indication of that larger art scene while continuing to list all the women’s shows I can find to celebrate their visibility and hard work.

Whose/Who’s California: Golden State x 10, Part 3 — California artists present their perceptions of their home state in a group show organized by NewTown at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. Of the 10 artists included, the only women are the very worthy Cheri Gaulke and Suzanne Siegel. 9/24/05 -1/9/06.

Artists rendering the faces of other artists makes Likeness: Portraits of Artists by Other Artists an interesting exhibition to see at the University Art Museum at Cal State University Long Beach. Yet Heather Cantrell, Anne Collier, Nan Goldin, Deborah Kass, Elizabeth Peyton are the five women out of 30 artists that make up the exhibit. 8/30 – 10/30.

The wonderfully warm and mysterious sculptures, collage, and an installation by Maddy LeMel are at Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood (9002 Melrose Avenue). To 9/3.

The sensual and very cinematic oil paintings of Rebecca Campell are at LA Louver Gallery in Venice (45 N. Venice Boulevard). To 10/8.

Ellina Kevorkian stages twins, photographs them in Pre-Raphaelite styled settings and clothing, then transfers their pictures to canvas and overpaints them. The resulting images deal with identity, duality, power and femininity as myth and cultural fairy tale. Western Project in Culver City (3830 Main Street). To 9/3.

UCLA Hammer Museum has the haunting video installation and mirrored mountain sculpture of Patty Chang’s Shangri-La in one gallery and Fiona Tan’s video portraits of inmates and guards on six hanging screens in another. To 10/16. Also at the Hammer are Linda Butler’s 50 black and white images of the Yangtze River taken before and after the building of the Three Gorges Dam in 2003. To 9/4.

The modern but vaguely religious images of Jen Heaslip and the personal shrines of Tamar Kardashov are featured in the Principal Object of Faith, a show curated by Jamie Greenberg at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. To 9/30. Also a two-person show, Compulsive Repetition: (Re)reading the Object in Space, with an installation by Sandra Tucci curated by Alma Ruiz. To 9/30.

Suvan Geer