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I’m a sucker for craft in art—the kind that actually makes a work look best from 10 inches away, where you can trace with your eyes the meandering trail of a single brushstroke, the nearly imperceptible gradations of tone in a fine etching or a platinum print.

An image conveys one sort of meaning—the narrative kind—in the story it tells, but there’s the part of a work of art, often found at intimate distance, that is closer to music than to literature. The bit that might make a viewer want to dance, or settle into meditation.

Los Angeles artist Max Jansons’ paintings at Rebecca Camacho Presents repay that kind of close looking. Not only are the designs meticulous, but every element of every work is carefully considered and devised, down to the studio-formulated paints and hand-cut tacks in his canvas stretchers.