Although it is true that the work of Isamu Wakabayashi is hermetic, there are means of access into the apparently closed world of his art. There is, for example, the palpable affection for his materials: he does not so much handle lead as caress (wrap, burnish, bend) it. There is also the peek-a-boo quality to many of the pieces that turns them into a sort of metaphysical amusement park. Fold, flap, wrap, and the viewer cranes, peers, crouches. Many of the pieces resemble boy’s model kits gone astray (or munitions factories gone awry).

Despite the work’s human scale, it possesses a monolithic