VENICE

Mixed-media sculpture by Peter Shelton evokes the peculiar sensation of being estranged from one’s own body. Organic totems that engage the viewer in a disinterested examination of the human form, Shelton’s pieces invite us to ponder the odd and unsettling shape of it, its contours, the sheer mass of it. Toward that end, he enhances and distorts the body--the arms in “Armstoolong” are too long, for instance--and as one progresses through the exhibition, nature’s handiwork comes to seem slightly horrific and rather comical.

Bruce Nauman is an obvious influence in much of the work (a piece titled “Blue Arm” in particular). Two sculptural landscapes, “Blue Stream” and “Blackmountain,” find Shelton tackling subject matter traditionally thought to be the province of painting (and trespassing on turf staked out by Bryan Hunt). Shelton differs from those artists in that his work has a rustic quality, particularly evident in stylized renditions of a canvas feed sack and a pair of longhorn steer antlers. Whether the subject at hand is the human torso or a massive gray hammer, Shelton distills the thing to its essence, and thus it reads as an homage to the magic and mystery of three-dimensional forms in space. (L.A. Louver, 77 Market St., to Dec. 27.)