MISAKI KAWAI @ LAMONTAGNE GALLERY By David O. Avruch The paintings, sculptures and collages of “Kung Fu Forest,” Misaki Kawai’s current show at the LaMontagne Gallery, are simultaneously awesome and awkward, simplistic and compelling, endearing and inscrutable. Despite its insanely…

LAUREL SPARKS: PLEASURE DOME @ HOWARD YEZERSKI By David O. Avruch The studied madness suffusing the paintings in “Pleasure Dome,” Laurel Sparks’s new show at the Howard Yezerski Gallery, was clearly a labor of love. Dystopian and engag-ing, the works…