LOS ANGELES Steven Hampton Surface/Depth David Salow Gallery 977 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles (213) 620-0240 www.davidsalowgallery.com Steven Hampton's recent show featured rich abstract paintings that vary in size and content. Selected from three recent series, Disasters, Still Lifes, and Details, these works share some strong similarities. They are energetic (but not always busy), and all maintain a tension between the suggestion of representation and a firm refusal to let metaphors become pictures. The foreground elements are presented in high detail. Hampton's strokes and swirls are made up of hairline streaks of color that push against each other and poke out from exposed layers underneath; one could spend all day peering up close to each canvas in order to ascertain exactly what's going on. This http://www.davidsalowgallery.comshapeimage_1_link_0