Hollywood

Minoru Ohira’s latest sculptures continue an interesting investigation of opposites. This time, familiar black slate and clean sticks poke and prod at the idea of containment. Some pieces, like a stacked box arrangement in “Magician’s Box,” explode the idea of inside/outside with whimsical directness. The jet-driven “Mariposa 89” hints at the idea of what can be sucked up and contained unseen. Airy shapes bristling with sticks and glass resolve, for a change, into solid form. A powerful, wasp-waisted vessel of fitted black slate that hangs like a dark, fractured hourglass turned to stone.

Roland Castellon makes earth--rubbed found objects turned into “post-Colombian” artifacts. Working on a base of old paper bags and stacks of museum exhibition cards, the artist--who was raised in Costa Rica--has assembled the dirt stained remains of a pseudo-civilization. Pieces are uniformly ocher, as if recently unearthed. Shapes are mysteriously intriguing, sometimes resembling tools, satchels, walking sticks or old folded maps.

Each piece is enigmatically titled “do,” which effectively denies viewers any information about the supposed civilization while encouraging them to make up their own cultural scenario to explain the artifact’s purpose and meaning. (Space Gallery, 6015 Santa Monica Blvd., to May 20.)