Wilshire Center

Rough-Hewn Sculpture: Joseph Wesner’s sculptures are made of welded steel combined with other rough-hewn materials: slabs of coal, chunks of sandstone, blocks of concrete. In that respect, the works bow to Constructivist tradition. But in his “preeminent attachment to life”--to quote some windy remarks of his in a brochure--he seems to mistake rote gracefulness for a sign of cultural distinction. The work is well made but ultimately, disappointingly, lifeless and academic.

A repeated theme of Wesner’s involves a series of curved, upright construction beams that lean against each other. They support an outstretched “arm” bearing a flat load of rock or coal or serve as ballast for a curving bulkhead of steel. The use of a curving horizontal element that wraps protectively around vertical members seems to be a Wesner trademark. His use of paint also moves the work away from the brute truth of its materials and toward what appears to be a preconceived notion of appropriateness.

It’s surprising to discover that Wesner, a graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, is only in his mid-30s. Surely there’s still time to fool around with more personal, irregular notions, to make the work look less timidly and consciously “classical” and give it more meaning for a puzzling and untidy world. The alternative is to find a fresher way of alluding to the rational, measured spirit of classicism without embalming yourself in it, as Wesner begins to do in “Zygon,” which rests on a white concrete base shot through with an industrial pattern of holes. (Wenger Gallery, 828 N. La Brea Ave., to March 20.)