Santa Monica

The fiberglass-and-metal pods Jacqueline Dreager molds from abandoned Air Force radar covers are a curious balance of threat and amusement. It’s hard not to enjoy the funky, let’s-pretend artifice of the pill-shaped planets with Saturn-style wooden rings and time capsules of translucent plastic with uncertain contents.

Like props from old science-fiction movies they are entertaining even if they do suggest the campy terror of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” But plastic egg shapes, with their industrial sameness, get redundant. After a rush of ‘60s nostalgia we need more than sci-fi simulated planets. Pieces like the brass “Double Portrait,” a ball pierced by ice tongs marked with two pressure screws inscribed “L.A.” and “Beijing,” add a welcome layer of political reflection.

Also on view are Mari Andrews’ large white, blue on blue paint-stick drawings of organic vessels. These painterly blueprints read like enlarged viscera. Each form is a wide, linear white silhouette delightfully alive with expressive marks and rippling with a ghostly electricity. Pared down to the essentials they suggest both calligraphy and science; natural instinct and rational intelligence. Interesting dualities never seem at odds. (Shoshana Wayne Gallery, 1454 5th St., to Nov. 25)