Love is in the air, and in the gallery

It’s what makes the world go round. It’s what made cash registers ring hot and heavy for the other day’s secular love fest. No surprise, then, that La Raza Galeria Posada should ask, What is This Thing Called Amor? The Galeria has spun a whole show around artists’ replies at 1024 22nd Street, its newish address as of last August.

So what if love is a nopalito cactus with prickles, as in Irene Perez’s “En Nopal Enamorada II” serigraph? It offers some enticing heart-shaped strawberries that could be worth a thorn or two. Or, ask Ella Maria Diaz, and she’ll give you “Love’s Nightmare,” a mixed-media collage of cartoonish faces and figures, a ripped marriage license, photos and scraps of handwritten notes. “I can’t wait to see you again,” says “sad girl,” but in context her message seems ambivalent. That’s why it’s so gripping. For more information call (916) 446-5133.