In Bruce Tapola’s “Bad Tooth” at Post Times Gallery, ridicule and pathos are mediated by comic protagonists alone, in pairs, or in meager groups. Through two rows of small paintings, viewer identification and improvisational participation is compelled. In The Needle, the Haystack, two people behold an underwhelming painting centered within the conservatively hued, well-organized composition. Its unhinged gray textures look adventurous next to two blank surfaces, but austere against the warm ochre wall. The man is quietly attentive, possibly eager. The woman’s posture is stiffer, and her eyes look tired, but she’s not without earnestness. Either could be nervous or relaxed, trying to explain a new path of exploration, searching for meaning as the title implies. They could be student and teacher or professors discussing a student, friends having a routine studio visit, or strangers meeting at a residency. The two anchor the artwork and our view like stone lions guarding the entrance to a significant portal. Deadpan humor pokes fun at painting’s pretensions.