Venice

“Joseph Cornell could put a marble in a shotglass and make you see the universe,” comments James Surls, a Texas sculptor who manages something along those lines himself, albeit on a much larger scale. A visionary artist who employs axes (and occasionally a bulldozer) in the making of roughly hewn wooden talismans of metaphysical transformation, Surls describes his career in art as “a search for soul”--and he makes soulful work indeed.

Built around a private vocabulary of symbols and reference points (among them his wife, the magical number three and eyes, which he feels represent human potential), Surls’ work combines ideas from various world religions. A belief in the cyclical rhythms of nature pervades all his work, however. The male/female push-pull and a sense of implied motion are also central to Surls’ aesthetic, and those two threads come together in a double portrait of the artist with his wife titled “We are Crossing Over.” We see Mrs. Surls (a large wooden prism) and Mr. Surls (a big gnarled tree that sprouts eyes rather than leaves) positioned on the center of a bridge as together, they cross over from one state of being to another. Like Bruce Chatwin’s wonderful book of last year “The Songlines,” this inspired piece is an homage to the belief that to move forward--that motion itself--is the essence of life. (L.A. Louver, 77 Market St., to Dec. 31.)