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ArtSPACE@16’s 38th exhibit, 4-SOLO, highlights the latest work by four area artists.

The show features “A Mediated Presence,” sculptures by Benjamin Cariens of Somerville; “Daba Dooble,” drawings by Xiao-Wei Chen of Medford; “Grotesque,” drawings and sculptures by Jason O’Keefe of South Boston; and “The Proof is in the Binding, an installation of book objects by Naomi Sultanik of Pawtucket, R.I.

The works will be presented March 24 through April 21.

The public is invited to a potluck reception with the artists Saturday, March 24, 2-5 p.m., at the gallery, 16 Princeton Road. A gallery talk by Benjamin Cariens will be held Saturday, April 14, at 3 p.m., and on the following Saturday, April 21, bronze sculptor Jason O’Keefe will give a talk on the subject of “Wax to Bronze, a Method of Casting,” beginning at 3 p.m. Admission to all the talks is free, and all are welcome.

In his series of sculptural works, “A Mediated Presence,” Cariens explores some of the ways in which individuals and cultures express moments of mediation in the material world. Through a wide range of materials, objects and spaces, Cariens said he hopes to convey the complexities involved in the transformations from the pedestrian into the profound, the material into the metamorphic and the simple into the symbolic.

Cariens obtained his Master of Theological Studies in the Hebrew Bible from Harvard University Divinity School in Cambridge and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Boston University School for the Arts.

 “There are moments in our experiences of the physical world when the most mundane objects or gestures are imbued with a significance far beyond themselves,” said Cariens, who is currently an assistant professor of sculpture and drawing at the University of New Hampshire. “When a piece of metal ceases to be a ring and becomes a wedding band, when a simple water basin refers not only to physical cleanliness, but spiritual purity, or when a book is not simply a book but a vessel for claims of transcendent truths. Some of these moments will find themselves codified by cultures and traditions into symbols and rituals others will live out a more private fate as memories.”

Xiao-Wei Chen will present 17 drawings impulsively recorded in .3 millimeter black ink lines on 5-inch by 3-inch cards in “Daba Doodle.” Chen’s drawings are an amalgamation of images that range from pregnancy to arthropods. Despite their appearance of logic and compositional conciseness, close examination reveals a slightly sinister sensuality inhabiting the images.

Chen, who lives and works in Medford, said “Daba is a space where I put my mental activities into forms. In Daba space, black and white replace all colors to express my scant view of life. Daba is my way of drawing.”

Born in Xian, Xiao-Wei Chen lived and studied in Beijing. She graduated from Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication in 2000. Her major body of work in China included multimedia designs, art direction, events planning and production.

Chen has won multiple national and international awards, including the French Mobius International Multimedia Design Award for her “Beijing Courtyard Houses,” and interactive film. She has exhibited her paintings in group shows in Beijing, and recently exhibited her small works in “Present Tense,” a juried drawing show at artSPACE@16, in Malden.

South Boston-based sculptor Jason O’Keefe shows his most recent drawings and his wax and bronze sculptures, which he describes as modern interpretations of grotesques or gargoyles. O’Keefe has titled this series as “Grotesque,” but unlike classic grotesques, his sculptures aren’t carved from stone or wood – and they don’t adorn architecture. However, they do uphold the tradition of acting to ward off evil, at least in O’Keefe’s opinion.

Monsters are inspiration to O’Keefe, as are Hieronymus Bosch, Mary Shelly, H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien and Mother Nature.

“Things that frighten and disgust me consequently attract my fullest attention. The darker and stranger the content is that comes out of me, the happier I am,” said O’Keefe, who attended Massachusetts College of Art and received a BFA in sculpture. He currently lives and works at the distillery in South Boston and participates in the annual South Boston Open Studios.

Pawtucket artist Naomi Sultanik studied at Cooper Union and SUNY Buffalo and has taught drawing at Orange County Community College, N.Y. Sultanik’s working medium is mixed media paintings, drawings and objects. Her works often come together as installations with the juxtaposition of material and image reflecting the long dealt-with themes of myth, dreams and landscape.

In creating “The Proof is in the Binding,” specifically for this gallery site, the artist said she sees the ritual of process as being the language of myth, a textual presence not easily defined but understood in the reality of the object.

 “Where is the essence revealed — in the text, or in the elements that surround it?” she asks viewers.

 Pages of printed text form the core of the work. They are layered, rolled, joined and marked with fabric, string, wire, glue and pigment. These elements act as footnotes that allow the viewer to enter the surface. The relationship of the fragments and the use of materials to the whole suggests a continuity of movement between the light and shadow of man and nature, she said.

Sultanik will also be showing her work at Galerie Parade in Amsterdam, having solo shows at Bank Rhode Island in Providence and the Library Gallery at University of Rhode Island in 2007.

Interested?

“4-SOLO” is open for viewing Saturdays, March 24 and 31, April 14 and 21, 12 - 5 p.m. The gallery is closed April 7. All other days are by appointment; call 781-321-8058 or e-mail SandT.artSPACEat16@verizon.net to schedule a viewing. This exhibition is supported in part by the LEF Foundation’s Contemporary Work Fund. For more information, visit www.artSPACEat16.com.