The history of art may seem an obvious source of inspiration, but a new collection of paintings by LA's Aaron Smith flips the switch on the baroque and gothic sculptures that influenced him, stripping the objects of their referential, spiritual, and historical significance. Smith, with a painterly, expressionist style, renders the relics (many of which he viewed at our own LACMA and the Getty Center) as contemporary objects, often altering the scale to gigantic proportions.