WILSHIRE CENTER

Like the haunting memory boxes of Joseph Cornell, mixed-media assemblages by Rose-Lynn Fisher evidence a love of alchemical mystery. Fisher explains her work as an attempt to “explore the interaction that occurs between systems, spaces and processes,” and she occasionally manages to do just that. Building low relief tableaux on a base of heavy, yellowing Mexican bark paper, she combines original etchings, gold leaf, rock crystals, postcards, found images and small toys to create fairy tale scenarios with the appearance of glittering illustrations from an ancient prayer book. Celestial charts and gyroscopes coexist with gambling dice in vast, arched halls typical of Renaissance architecture where figures from various centuries can be seen attempting to unravel the puzzle of the universe. Sweet work that sometimes goes a bit precious, Fisher’s artful fantasies are like miniature shrines to great thinkers.

Also on view are sculptural wall pieces by Robert Walker. It was the ‘50s Abstract Expressionists who initially turned Walker on to art and his current work suggests that the first cut is indeed the deepest. Like Pollock and company, Walker goes for art that’s emotionally charged, colorful and a trifle chaotic; Walker’s work, however, is more blatantly decorative than anything done by Jack the Dripper. Undulating organic forms made of rope netting impregnated with plastic, Walker’s work pulsates with seductive visual rhythm, but sometimes the pieces swell to the point of being too rich for the blood. Embellished with various industrial materials--jutting shapes made of wood, mesh screen, copper tubing--the pieces stagger under the weight of all that stuff, plus complex volume, plus layers of texture. They teeter on the verge of collapsing into baroque scrapheaps.(Saxon-Lee Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., to June 27.)