Jockum Nordström and Norbert Schwontkowski, who both have solo shows on view in New York, combine faux naïve styles with sophisticated drawing, painting, and collage techniques. Mr. Nordström’s drawings and collages are more disjointed than unified, while Mr. Schwontkowski’s paintings are subtle and calming. His sophisticated palette, playful simplifications, and use of iconic imagery relate his paintings to Alex Katz and Philip Guston, whose work, along with Pablo Picasso’s and others, hangs next to his own at the gallery.

In the works on view at David Zwirner, Mr. Nordström contrasts different concepts of pictorial space, fashions from different historical periods, and sophisticated realism, along with expressionism inspired by children’s art. His work is more endearing than most self-conscious pastiche art, because he takes his chosen medium seriously. He revels in drawing’s power to conjure a world from nothing.

Mr. Nordström has passages in his work that resemble the drawings of children, especially many of the figures in them, but he reserves his most exacting powers for rendering furniture and architecture. In the drawing “How Long” (2005), we see a door, two desks, and a chair rendered in a detailed and well-proportioned manner. A woman in a short-sleeved blouse and miniskirt strums on a guitar, rendered in a more humorous, abstract, and childlike way. Her hands are tiny and her head is big. Even though such drawings as “Pawn Broker” (2006) have solitary figures that are more realistically rendered, the one hand on this figure looks like a flipper and there are no feet to be found. Yet the legs on all the pieces of furniture, and the decorative carvings on them, are carefully rendered.

On the right side of the graphite drawing “Things are Beginning To Hum,” 2006, the detached upper torso of a casually dressed diminutive male looks out at the viewer with his arm raised above a female who is on all fours wearing nothing but a black shirt and tight underwear. She too looks out at the viewer. The figures ignore one another. They are props brought into existence to entertain their creator and us. The rest of this drawing is comprised of figures wearing costumes from different historical periods floating in front of a white background along with pieces of furniture, and objects resembling fireplace utensils and old musical equipment. This imagery titillates because the artist is also titillated by it. He seems to have created these tableaux for the same reasons a young boy draws action scenes. Though we shouldn’t forget how sophisticated these pieces really are, I imagine Mr. Nordström producing sound effects as he draws and pastes.

Mr. Schwontkowski uses symbols as metaphors for internal states, but his ultimate goal is to transform the painting into a mirror or something that reflects viewers’ inner states. All viewers experience instant recognition when looking at Schwontkowski’s paintings. The images are familiar: boats floating on an expanse of brown water (“Boote,” 2006), a butterfly hovering before an oval mirror (“Schmetterling,” 2006), a geyser-like fountain with four blobby figures shambling toward it (“Die Erscheinung [Fontaine],” 2006), and a moonlit fishing village (“Fischerdorf,” 2006). The pigmentation transforms the mundane into icons or landscapes that are highly personal but still accessible.

Reminiscent of Morandi’s palette, the muted colors Mr. Schwontkowski uses are sophisticated because of the glazing and pigment mixing processes he employs.The colors quietly simmer and shift. The symbols he uses are familiar but alienating, endearing but strange. Mr. Schwontkowski’s presence is fleeting. We are lost inside his paintings by the time we realize we are alone.

Schwontkowski until November 22 (1018 Madison Ave., between 78th and 79th streets, 212-744-7400);

Nordström until October 14 (525 W. 19th St., between Tenth Avenue and West Street, 212-727-2070).