LA CIENEGA AREA

Lynda Benglis’ current show of metal sculpture brings little news, just reassurances of her mastery of a form that remains resonant despite its familiarity. During the decade or so that she has been making wall pieces resembling giant knots of fabric, Benglis has built an impressive repertoire of technical approaches and expressive allusions. Relatively fragile early pieces were often likened to contorted dancing figures. The new batch of 21 sculptures (including one work from 1984 and two made last year) look like bows, knots or flowers of pleated fabric, but they are also weighty objects of bronze, aluminum or copper.

Accentuating art’s ability to transform materials and related ideas, Benglis fashions a large form of pliable wire screen, then plates it, building a solid structure. In the process, the soft, fussy frills associated with feminine clothing become monumental sculpture. Her recent works depart from her past approach only insofar as they grow more organic. The accordian-pleated “fabric” often blossoms like flower petals, from a central knot, or it opens like leaves or pods around a cluster of seeds.

These interpretations are not spelled out literally, nor are they the central issue of Benglis’ work. It’s the process of soft fabric turning into hard metal and hand-tied knots becoming natural forms that keeps us looking. That, and the presence of art that can be simply admired as vigorous abstraction, played out in a changing array of metallic colors, surfaces and configurations. (Margo Leavin Gallery, 817 Hilldale Ave., to June 20.)