Before globalism shrank the world, the painter Takako Yamaguchi was already combining American Transcendentalism, Art Nouveau, Mexican Muralism, and Japanese kimono patterns in her quasi-abstract paintings. Yamaguchi was born in Okayama, Japan, in 1952. After studies at Bates College, in Maine, and the Rhode Island School of Design, she earned an MFA in 1978 from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and moved to Los Angeles. Her paintings play with the concept of “abstraction in reverse.” She contradicts the Western historical narrative by attributing the roots of abstraction to the Transcendental Painting Group, artists who were active in New Mexico in the 1930s. At Ortuzar Projects, 10 of Yamaguchi’s magical seascapes—characterized by peculiar compositions, crisp lines, and a mastery of color—are on view. —Elena Clavarino