Santa Monica

Chicago artist David Kotker’s bronze and steel sculpture is rather like a cross between Giacometti’s attenuated figures and Etruscan artifacts. But there’s a disturbing edge that goes beyond postwar angst and the pathos of ancient relics. In nearly every piece is evidence of bondage, mutilation or an instrument that could do violence to flesh. A tall winged figure is blindfolded, gagged and bound around the chest; another elongated figure is tied to a scaffold. “Quarried Heads” are not skulls but severed heads wired to chunks of granite. The legs of a tripod turn into knives, while strange bundles hang from hooks.

The work has a certain resonance, but it also suffers from conflict between historical sources and the emotional quotient that has been imposed on them. Kotker seems to aim for mysterious realms of mythology and archeology while producing evidence of torture, death and psychic distress. It’s possible to deal with both concepts, but this work hasn’t quite sorted itself out. (Roy Boyd Gallery, 1547 10th St., to Oct. 1.)