Anna Betbeze "Forms Like Dreams" is on view at Nina Johnson gallery through May 29. The exhibition of new works includes paintings, works on paper, drawings, sculpture, and—a first for the artist—photography. "For years, I have been tracking a series of seemingly disparate ideas: touch, the haptic sense, holes and shadows, color, destructive plasticity, deformation and the animate," said the artist. Her research in touch and tactility led her from Jan Svankmajer to Bob Baker Marionette Theatre in Los Angeles. Making puppets in various forms and material, she staged them in photographs in her studio. "The puppets themselves are touched and tactile. The pictures are a cage. Through drawing and painting they are animated into forms that slip in and out of being something, to being nothing, deforming and reforming endlessly," said Betbeze.