Cosmic overload

There is a seductive combination of innocence and a glimmer of the cosmic in Angelbert Metoyer’s information-laden but surprisingly serene paintings. As testament to the ability of the work to strike a chord with viewers, the works are selling briskly in the former Atlanta College of Art student’s solo show at Sandler Hudson Gallery. There are plenty of scarlet “sold” dots to match the lusciously scarlet fish and chickens that populate his work.

Metoyer’s highly decorative paintings — like high-end gift wrap — are done on paper and decorated with stylized, purposefully antique imagery. The man and woman in “Adam 11811 and Eve 11811,” for instance, look like ’30s-era small-town folk dressed up for a night on the town. And his animals — ox, chicken, fish, hobby horse — have the look of illustrations from vintage classroom primers.

Enhancing the childlike qualities are the squiggles, cross-outs and numbers that obsessively fill the foreground and background of Metoyer’s images like the celestial white noise that once packed Kojo Griffin’s canvases. There is an air of obsession in Metoyer’s work suggesting a mix of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the backyard religious epiphanies of folk artists. That sense of homegrown religion infects every element of the show, from the artist’s name, Angelbert, to its title, Studies for Intergalactic Heavens, to the artist’s statement declaring: “These creations are intended to spread holy love to you, through you and to others across our planet into the universe.” At 26, Metoyer seems like a precociously old soul.

Metoyer takes Griffin’s and Radcliffe Bailey’s implicit morality and cosmic weightiness, and crafts a more explicit, earnest but at times ponderous personal spirituality as in his “Eve” wearing angel’s wings or words like “Angel” scrawled onto “Twin Star 11011.”

While the work sometimes disappoints for its neutered innocence, Metoyer has other things going for him. There is a strange knowingness in the eyes of his ox or in the timeless reach of his male “Adam” figure. His figures — animal and human — rendered with depth and sentiment, are the most charming element of the work, and many of the other details float like dander in the air, obscuring the view. The busyness of Metoyer’s paintings often distracts from the poignant qualities of the work, drowning it in a cosmic muddle.

Angelbert Metoyer: Studies for Intergalactic Heavens runs through Sept. 6 at Sandler Hudson Gallery, 1831-A Peachtree Road. 404-350-8480. Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat. noon-5 p.m. www.sandlerhudson.com.