SANTA MONICA

George Geyer’s sculptures appear to have the pristine perfection of objects turned out by an assembly line; in fact, these geometric marvels of glass, aluminum, granite, marble and steel are gravity-defying feats of balance and tension.

It’s intensely romantic work that hides its foolish heart beneath a cool, hard veneer--and on that score it’s distinctly Californian. As in past work by Eric Orr, Peter Alexander, James Turrell and Larry Bell, Geyer’s precisely lit objects appear to be conducting a dry, technical inquiry into the properties of light and space. The only immediately apparent emotional content seems to be of the Zen variety, however; Geyer corrupts the austere purity of the Eastern sensibility with a Westerner’s lust for luscious visuals. The image one carries away from the show is of severe geometric formations being seduced into a lyrical and sentimental mode by the pools of shimmering blue light that surround them. (Karl Bornstein, 1662 12th St., to April 25.)