On Saturday night, 18 galleries in the Culver City Art District celebrated openings, giving many Culver Citizens a preview of the artworks that will be on display during the Culver City Art Walk on June 4. Over the next two weeks, I'll shine the spotlight on four shows that you should be sure to check out on the 4th.

The first was Wayne White's show at Western Project.

The second show you should be sure to check out is Terry Thompson's at George Billis Gallery at 2716 La Cienega Blvd. Thompson, who worked as an equipment engineer in Silicon Valley prior to earning his MFA at San Jose State University, meticulously renders old signs in oil paint.

Thompson's paintings have great surface joys -- suave graphic lines and brilliantly faded colors. In the piece ' Lark Motel' (top), the name of the motel, like the joyful colors Thompson uses, seems to points away from the depth of the work. 

But they also express an acceptance that stuff wears out and that the most beautiful, delicate and ephemeral things wear out most quickly.  In Lark Motel, the neon tubes seem out of sync with the painted message they were once intended to illuminate.

Thompson's paintings pay tribute to the cool and slender optimism of the American 50s and early 60s - expressing a nostalghia about a past future.

Ultimately, the pieces are about the passing of time and of innocence. By extension, as the name of the exhibit, "Signs of Life," would imply, they are about the passing of life itself.