The Search for Meaning

In “The Power of Symbols,” the four-person show at the Century Gallery in Sylmar, the artists veer sharply from each other into separate conceptual corners, which underscores a central truth about symbolism: It’s subject to change and interpretation.

Dogs, in silhouette or seen as spectral visions in the dark, run through the paintings of Myra Gantman. Her imagery is dark and inquisitive, and she exploits canine subjects for their mythical and metaphorical potential, as gatekeepers and companions in the quest for spiritual understanding.

Cheeky and charged with gender politics, Cynthia Wiggins shows redecorated jockstraps, festooned with floral accessories, colorful buttons, frills and other items.

Her gently subversive act emasculates the object in question in a humorous way.

Linda Lopez’s large charcoal works present images of change, time and energy-channeling. They include a pendulum, a funnel, and a magnet that were created by the subtractive process of rubbing away charcoal to reveal the image.

As such, the image-making process itself becomes a symbol of art as a search for uncovered meanings.

Greg Gilbertson’s sculptures, with a recurring baby form, are the most outlandish and somewhat off-putting works in the show.

They have less to do with the manipulation of symbolism than with challenging the process of absorbing art for its worth. In this case, it isn’t worth much.

In “Builder Boy as Bad Meat,” the baby is covered in a red substance inside an oversized frying pan situated next to the child’s severed legs. Whatever loftier goals the artist had in mind, the air of shock tactics and sniggering sadism hardly justifies the ends.

BE THERE

“The Power of Symbols,” through Saturday at Century Gallery, 13000 Sayre St., Sylmar. Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday noon-4 p.m. (818) 362-3220.