HOLLYWOOD

Seiji Kunishima’s granite and metal sculptures parallel many principles of the Zen dry garden. He uses their visual language as metaphors for concepts of order, balance and discovery. Kunishima uses objects as catalysts for meditation.

Kunishima achieves this effect through a series of dualities. Single, roughly hewn stones are split to reveal smooth surfaces and another, smaller stone within, creating a sense of concealed order beneath the outward, random surface. Reflective, highly polished surfaces clearly allude to suspended bodies of water, pocked by rain drops, while pitted areas conjure up decaying relics, aged architectures worn by time.

Works also draw attention to the artist’s skill as a manipulator of materials. We become as much aware of the strategic chisel mark or cut as of the desire to explore more interior “realities.” Such material and conceptual flux gives Kunishima’s work a combination of formal power and contemplative resonance--a balance between active and passive that is the hallmark of much Japanese art. (Space Gallery, 6015 Santa Monica Blvd., to May 9.)