Three-ring something

It’s the beginning of a new year, a time to start anew. Out with the old, in with the new, they say. Well, somebody forgot to mention these traditions to the folks who run the Toyroom Gallery, located in an alley running east off 24th Street, north of Second Avenue. They haven’t changed a thing for the new year, and that’s good news for those interested in seeing the best underground art in Sacramento. The current show runs from 6 p.m. until “late” Thursday through Saturday, January 15-17. It’s titled Raised in the Circus, and it features the work of Alex Pardee and Robert Bowen. It starts the year off with a bang. Pardee’s pieces exist in a world that’s almost childlike in its imagination, but there’s way too much adult dementia for it to be safe for kids. Bowen has a fascination with creepy things, basically: black widows, bones and the like. Both artists are responding to pop culture and comic-oriented art, and both do it quite well.