Upstairs in Su’s performance space lobby (852...

Upstairs in Su’s performance space lobby (852 Eighth Ave.) is an exhibition of 10 proposals for public projects from among those not selected for construction this year as part of its “Streetsets” exhibit of site-specific installations.

Among them, Christine Oatman’s “Personal Landscape Fantasy” is one of the most engaging. She would have made magic by arranging groups of opalescent plastic bubbles (ranging from 1 inch to 2 feet in diameter) in seamy downtown sites such as gutters and trash collectors. The concept is subtle, realizable and beautiful.

David Quattrociocchi’s “Paradise,” or place of bliss, would have included hammocks and game tables at sites for relaxation and human interaction. Roberto Salas’s “Visual Detour for San Diego” proposed for F Street would have featured a zigzag line of orange plastic street-marking cones suspended overhead. Eduardo Lopez would have had as a goal the raising of consciousness of San Diego and Tijuana as one metropolitan area.

Also on view are drawings and constructions by Amanda Farber, Gary Ghirardi, Tom Grondona, Margaret Honda, Brent Riggs, Deborah Small and James Luna.

It is instructive to contemplate what might have been.

Both exhibitions continue through March 7.

The Natalie Bush Gallery (908 E St.) is exhibiting 12 drawings by Los Angeles artist Diane Gamboa, entitled as a group “Daydream.”

The artist creates her quasi-urban-folk art works, whose graphic strength belies their small size (7 by 5 inches), by scratching through a surface of viscous ink dried on aluminum sheets.

Her figurative, graffiti-like images convey her perceptions of the real and spirit worlds and their interactions.

The exhibition continues through Feb. 28.

International Gallery (643 G St.) is also showing works whose concern is the interaction of this world and the spirit realm.

Entitled “Objects of Ritual,” its 138 works representing spirit forms from Melanesia, Africa and Indonesia. Most of the pieces are 25 to 40 years old, but several date back to the end of the last century.

The ominous carvings usually have functional as well as ceremonial purpose. For example, hooks both represent ancestors and support possessions above the ground. Flutes not only represent ancestors’ bodies; when sounded they represent their voices.

The works are made of a variety of materials in addition to wood, including earth-based pigments, shells, fiber and even spiders’ filament.

The installation of the exhibition is, as is customary at Installation, very handsome.

Also on view is a photographic essay in color illustrating the diversity of “A Day in the Life of China,” which leaves San Diego for a national tour.

Both exhibitions continue through March 7.

The Wita Gardiner Gallery (535 4th Ave.), which is acquiring a national reputation as a venue for contemporary fine crafts, is exhibiting works by 12 artists.

Jerry Rothman’s larger ceramic “Ritual Vessels,” composed of geometric forms, are darkly handsome. Karen Koblitz’s ceramic wall pieces are colorful still-lifes wildly combining patterns with patterns; Patrick Crabb’s ceramic works allude to imagined cultures of the future as well as the past.

Joan Austin weaves magical sea forms out of delicately tinted plastic strips.

The exhibition continues through Feb. 24.

Java (837 G St.) is exhibiting a new selection of works from the collection of co-owner Doug Simay. Included are fine examples of the work of Ron Williams, Ernest Silva, Patricia Patterson and Robert Anderson.

Los Angeles figurative artist Dan McCleary is represented by a pastel portrait of Eva Marie Saint from a a movie still from “On the Waterfront.” Entitled “Elysian Fields” (for the location of the film in Hoboken, New Jersey), it is part of an important film-inspired series in the artist’s oeuvre.

The exhibition continues through March 8.