If it’s anyone who knows how to whack cute upside the head with an arrestingly honest flair — or at least put the literal meaning to “disgustingly cute” — it’s artist and JoshSpear.com fave Luke Chueh. Chueh’s paintings depict adorable, chubby cartoon animals in the midst of all sorts of cynical situations and self-revelations, which oftentimes fall to the side of morbid. A chicken mulls over his breakfast of eggs. A bear paints a target on his chest in front of a bullet-riddled backdrop. Whether they’re sad, disturbed, pitiful or even amused, his befuddled characters somehow are able to maintain some semblance of naivete even while they’re basically losing it. That’s why you moan a big “Aw!” when you see his paintings.

Chueh’s back with new works in his first — and well deserved — solo show at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles called Paintings of Hope and Hopelessness, split into two parts. Tonight’s kickoff is the “Hope Opening” with paintings of hopeless characters in hopeful situations, while the following show, on Sept. 25, flips the script to become the “Hopeless Opening” with work featuring hopeful animals in hopeless situations. All familiar dispositions we’ve experienced before, I’m sure.