In Fine Form : Century Gallery displays works of 15 contemporary Constructivists. Space, line, and color serve as tools.

It’s difficult to say the word Constructivism, let alone explain in succinct form what this art movement, which began in Russia about 1915, is all about. If the term sounds ponderous and dull, the art is anything but.

About the time that World War I began, Russian artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko and Liubov Popova were engaged in a redefinition of the nature of art. Representational painting and sculpture was rejected in favor of abstract art.

Constructivists, led by Tatlin, worked with materials such as pieces of iron, glass and wood to create nonobjective, geometric constructions unlike previous sculpture, which had been modeled, carved or cast. Space, line and color were, and still are, the primary tools of Constructivism.

“The early Constructivists had a utopian vision that geometric shapes could be a universal visual language, a unifying language,” said Laurie Schnoebelen, one of 15 artists whose work is on display in the show “Contemporary Constructivism Sampler” at Century Gallery in Sylmar. Schnoebelen was first a figure painter. “I had big expanses of color field behind the figure. The next logical step was to eliminate the figure. I got so involved with the color and the shapes. They are limitless. Shapes have such a potent voice.”

Century Gallery director Lee Musgrave, a Constructivist painter himself, sees the focus of this art as “the disposition of form and space.”

“It has an intellectual and an emotional base,” he said. “The reward is in the details. Each Constructivist puts in his own details, which explode with all kinds of things. European Constructivism is tied up in politics. Americans have been able to take the politics out of it.”

The exhibit brings together artists from California, Washington and Colorado. “For the last five years, I’ve been looking for someplace else for myself besides Los Angeles. I’ve been on all these driving tours in the West,” Musgrave said. “Everywhere I went, I would go to every gallery and museum. I was looking for kindred spirits and I found them.”

Jim Day works with lacquer on steel to make compelling color combinations in his wall constructions. In each piece, fine geometric forms on a main circle radiate a delicate sensibility that defies the hardness of steel.

Riis Burwell also used steel and created an ethereal presence in his “Entropy Series 5” sculpture. “My sculpture draws its emphasis from my interest in the geometry of nature. Geometry is the thread that holds nature together; entropy is the force that pulls nature apart,” he wrote in a 1991 artist statement.

The colors and forms of Megumi Kido’s prints such as “Early Spring,” first draw a viewer to the work. But upon closer inspection, it is the linear details within the yellow and orange forms in “Early Spring” that provide a heightened energy to the piece.

Victoria Loschuk has created powerful stylized figures in two oil paintings. Though infinitely more intricate than the RoboCop of movie fame, her dark, steely geometric figures bear some resemblance to it.

The sweeping arcs and lines of Claudia Smith’s crayon-on-paper drawings were inspired by the great cathedrals. “I was attracted to the idea of a vast architectural space composed of many geometric elements interacting to produce small niches and alcoves,” she wrote.

There is a theatrical quality to Elizabeth Bain’s constructions, especially “Portal II,” a three-dimensional piece that readily suggests a stage curtain. It presents a sense of excitement about what might be behind it. Her more recent, more two-dimensional pieces reference landscape, both natural and human-made.

“I’ve often looked at Indian art and seen a great correlation between what they did and what Constructivists do,” Musgrave said. “You see it even in the architecture of the Southwest Indians, the Mayas. Constructivism in the West is distinctively different from what I’ve seen in Chicago or New York or Europe. You should see the looks I get when I talk about this--Constructivism in the West--they say, ‘Get outta here, it doesn’t exist.’ ”

Other artists represented in the show are Weldon Butler, David French, Yury Frolov, Sherman Hay, Joyce Kohl, Vince Koloski, James Mai and Linda Pope.

Where and When What: “Contemporary Constructivism Sampler.” Location: Century Gallery, 13000 Sayre St., Sylmar. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Ends Dec. 10. Call: (818) 362-3220.