ART/SNEAK PEEK : THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE EERIE.

Remember those creepy, crawly, musty-smelling things you used to hack apart in high school biology class? So, apparently, does artist Craig Smith.

Like some big-game hunter armed with a camera instead of a rifle, Smith stalks natural history museums. His quarry, for the most part, is already dead and picturesquely displayed for human enjoyment. He also likes poking around back-room storage areas and finding unusual perspectives on museum dioramas.

In a new exhibition, ``Museum Studies,'' the Phoenix-based photographer records the eerie beauty of animal skeletons and such objects as a squid (or is it an octopus?) embalmed in a pickling jar. Mounted against black backdrops, some of these natural relics take on the properties of exotic, otherworldly sculptures.

Broadly stated, Smith's subject is the way human institutions represent, preserve and otherwise classify the natural world. He brings to his inquiries a scientific scrutiny combined with a painterly eye for lighting and texture.

``Museum Studies'' will be on display through the end of January at the Gallery at the Doyle/Logan Co., 7836 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, which presented Smith's previous photographic series, ``Physical Evidence: Artifacts from a Violent Culture.''

The gallery will be closed the first week of January, but thereafter will be

open 1 to 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and by appointment. For information, call [phone].

Seasonal overload

The show must go on - but not right away. Due to a lack of entries, the Valley Watercolor Society has canceled its Members' Exhibit that was scheduled to begin Thursday at the North Hollywood Regional Branch Library. The Exhibit Committee is looking for a suitable location for a juried spring show. As the current issue of the Society's newsletter notes: ``perhaps the holiday season was not the best time to hold the show.''

Printed matters

Everyone knows that the 15th-century German printer Johann Gutenberg invented movable type, right? Um, not exactly. Korean artists had been dabbling in printed artworks and documents some 70 years before Gutenberg, as a new exhibition at Santa Monica College's Art Gallery demonstrates. ``Korea's Early Printing Culture'' runs Jan. 9 to 31 at the college, 1900 Pico Blvd.

Many of the objects on display are drawn from the Early Printing Museum in Chongju City, South Korea, home to some of the world's oldest printed books. Call [phone].

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Photo: In ``Museum Studies,'' photographer Craig Smith records the eerie beauty of animal skeletons and such objects as a squid (or is it an octopus?) embalmed in a pickling jar.