Santa Monica

New York-based artist Carol Szymanski says that her sculpture has to do with phonetic symbols, “the most fundamental units of sound that possess meaning.” Her linear metal traceries resemble 3-D versions of the ornate capital letters in manuscript illumination.

A couple assume the form of oratorical flourishes cut into hunks of felt-backed, patinaed copper plate. The best are small monogram-like pieces made of steel plate. These have a smart, whiplash flair, with their interpenetrating shapes and fluid thicks and thins. “A/E/I/O/U,” a set of carved wood vowels mounted on a nouveau riche array of marble bases, is too much of a production, however, and loses that deft, designer’s edge.

In small, dry, linear paintings, New Hampshire artist Patrick Dunfey borrows from the 19th-Century American sign-painter’s craft to isolate homespun artifacts and give them ironically nostalgic references.

“Commerce” is the teasing title for the image of a crudely made wagon wheel dangling a red ribbon. In “Crest,” a leafy cutting garnishes a door-knocker decorated with small red and blue balls that cast flat gold-circle reflections. A glimpse of the inside of a boat draped with an unused sail (“Scuttle”) alludes self-consciously to poetic notions of the seafaring life.

This idiosyncratic repertoire of objects-as-symbols has a close-lipped, introverted side that plugs into the American painting tradition as well as the contemporary itch to dissect ordinary things--an unusual and appealing combo. (Pence Gallery, 908 Colorado Ave., to April 2.)