ART / SNEAK PEEK : GET A GLIMPSE OF `MAN'S WORLD' AT MOCA.

They say a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Meaning ... what? Beg for a Bud Lite (``I love you man!'')? Grab a goatskin drum and head for the nearest backwoods encounter group?

Russell Ferguson doesn't have any definitive answers, but he hopes to raise plenty of pertinent questions with ``Man's World,'' a multimedia inquiry into male identity that runs through Oct. 13 at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

In thinking up the show, Ferguson noted that there was no direct male equivalent of what's commonly termed ``feminist art.'' The reason, he thinks, is that society tends to take masculinity for granted, to treat it as a behavioral norm rather than a sociological construct.

With a minimum of academic jargon and soapbox rhetoric, ``Man's World'' seeks to challenge fixed ideas about what makes a man a man. Viewers are likely to conclude that male identity is a highly fluid commodity, not one easily formulated (although Marlboro and Anheuser-Busch have been trying to perfect the recipe for decades). Its vagueness may be exactly what makes masculinity such an uneasy concept for society in general, and so anxiety-provoking for individual men.

``I think the fact that people need to `prove their manhood' suggests that what a man is is not quite as self-evident as a lot of people would like to think,'' says Ferguson, a MOCA editor and curator.

Drawn from MOCA's permanent collection, ``Man's World'' brings together painting, sculpture, mixed-media assemblage and a generous helping of such photographers as Diane Arbus, Richard Prince, Nan Goldin and Larry Clark (who directed last year's highly praised, documentarylike indie hit ``Kids'').

In many cases, the works were not self-consciously created to address issues of masculinity. Images such as Roy Lichtenstein's 1962 oil on canvas, ``The Grip,'' refer only obliquely to the values that sway the male soul. Others, such as Prince's 1984 photograph of a lone horseman mythically framed by snow-covered mountains, waggishly co-opt Madison Avenue cliches of macho lifestyles.

Still others, like Llyn Foulkes' mixed-media ``Pop'' (1985-90), confront masculine archetypes with all the delicacy of a car wreck. In this bleakly amusing piece, an all-American father figure sits rigidly enthroned in his easy chair, eyes bulging, a Superman logo visible beneath his shirt. A woman (wife? daughter?) hovers close by, as if trying to prop up the ailing patriarch. A wall calendar pointedly shows Aug. 6, the date of the Hiroshima bombing.

Some 40 years into the feminist ``revolution,'' Ferguson concedes it would be impossible to view ``Man's World'' outside the context of feminist art history. Yet he stresses that the exhibition ``is not meant to be in any way oppositional to feminist projects.'' He sees it, instead, as part of an ongoing dialogue.

The show's ambiguous title reminds Ferguson of the old James Brown ditty, ``It's a Man's Man's Man's World.'' In the insecure '90s, Brown's boast may not sound quite as sure as it once did.

MOCA is at 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 seniors and students with ID, free for MOCA members and children under 12. Admission is free Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m. For information, call [phone].

CSUN's united front: It's been four or five years - no one seems to remember exactly - since California State University, Northridge, last hosted an exhibition by its arts faculty. But after consolidating four separate programs into a single art department, the university is eager to show off the breadth of its expertise in sculpture, painting, photography, graphic design and computer animation. Among the 31 full- and part-time faculty represented are Marvin Hardren, Joy von Wolffersdorff and department chairman Joe Lewis. The show runs through Sept. 28 at the campus' Art Dome, Music Lawn 236 at the campus, 18111 Nordhoff St. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Mondays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. Admission is free; on-campus parking is $1.75. For information, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) ``A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th St., N.Y.C. 1966'' by Diane Arbus is part of ``Man's World'' at L.A.'s MOCA.

(2) Roy Lichtenstein's oil painting ``The Grip'' (1962), also from MOCA's collection, provides another view of masculinity.