A lifetime-spanning survey of works by Jess (1923-2004) is bound to be a bit meta — because the work that Jess produced across his long career was itself always already a survey of his own life and times. From his earliest paintings in the 1950s to his latter-day collage-based compositions made well into the 1990s, with drawing, sculpture, and video collaborations along the way, Jess was at every moment consciously assembling an archive of his own obsessions.

The Bay Area of the 1950s was the West Coast epicenter for poetry, jazz and art. Part of the excitement came from the close connections between those three art forms. This was especially true in collage, art composed from fragments of photographs, advertisements or newspaper articles, elements brought together in unexpected ways to tell new stories.

To visit “Jess — Secret Compartments” at Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles is to glimpse a soul who couldn’t care less about stylistic consistency (or establishing his brand as an artist). Instead, Jess did what he did because it seemed right at the time.