The Natalie Bush Gallery (908 E St.),...

SAN DIEGO — The Natalie Bush Gallery (908 E St.), a small, relatively new space, has given San Diego a series of exhibits that it would not have had but for the presence of Natalie Bush herself. Having moved here from Santa Barbara, Bush has brought artists from elsewhere and surveyed local artists with a fresh eye. She is one of the very few dealers in town, nowadays, really taking chances with untried artists.

Her current show features sculptures by Phyllis Green: two floor-oriented and five pedestal pieces made of natural and finished wood forms assembled in elegant, open, lyrical compositions. Green uses color--whites and grays for the most part, with some green, red and natural wood--judiciously and effectively, creating what may be read as linear paintings in space. They are interesting from every point of view.

Despite their abstractness, they are metaphorically evocative. “Dive” creates a sense of directed and purposeful falling; “Siren” could be a woman with long tresses; “Combat,” a pair of struggling forms. The thornlike shapes on parts of “Stranger” and “Dangerous” convey visually what their titles announce.

The exhibit, which continues through July 3, is very effectively installed in Bush’s clean, white space overlooking the city.

International Gallery (643 G St.) is always a joy to visit, not only because of the attractive exhibits but also because of the cordiality and informativeness of the people who own it and work there. The gallery regularly offers educational events in connection with its exhibits, including a talk tonight at 7 by local basket makers Fran Kraynek-Prince and Neil Prince, entitled “The Art of Collecting Folk Craft Baskets.”

The current show, “The Basket: Form and Function,” surveying contemporary basket making by 45 artists nationally, was curated by Shereen La Plantz.

Many of the works are functional, but who would want to carry eggs in a $300 basket? Most are baskets because they either directly, or very vaguely, resemble the forms we identify as baskets.

It is overall a very beautiful show with many unusual forms in many exotic materials.

Vivian Leigh Vaughan uses natural and metallic fibers, cactus spines, fleece, feathers and acrylic pigments to make works that look like delicate, jeweled, surreal flowers. David Davis, in strong contrast, uses honeysuckle vines and palm tree parts in elemental sculptures that are rough in form and texture but not crude in execution. Priscilla Henderson’s pieces reflect minimal geometric and conceptual concerns.

Some works, Marcie Stone’s for example, are elaborately junked up. Others are simply contrived. Their parts don’t work together harmoniously--Connie and Tom McColley’s beach branch with woven white oak, for example, and Misti Washington’s woven pine needles with Leata Judd’s ceramic face.

The works of West Virginia artists Ken and Kathleen Dalton, which possess that elusive quality we call “presence,” could not be more ostensibly traditional in form--simple baskets made of split white oak woven in complexly regular geometric patterns. Their beauty is in their plainness--as in Shaker works. They are unadorned and unpigmented. All they offer is the elegance of their forms (although they are functional as well). And that is enough.

The gallery is also showing a selection of engaging contemporary, folk-style sculptures in wood by Los Angeles artist Robert Tolone. Just the thing to see for a quick “pick-me-up,” they are larger than life-size and include rough-hewn chickens, fish, dragons, snakes and a goat in unrealistic, high-key colors and wild patterns. Be sure to look inside the mouth of the “Great Man-Eating Shark.”

Tolone will give a slide lecture entitled “Contemporary Folk Sculpture: a Fine Artist’s View” at the gallery at 7 p.m. June 20.

Both exhibits continue through July 1.

Nearby, Spectrum Gallery (744 G St.) is offering “Name That Art,” a group exhibit for the “exclusively San Diego” member artists.

Near each exhibited work is a sheet of paper and a crayon for viewers to suggest titles and to register their comments. The gimmick attracts more than cursory attention.

Standouts are Eric Blau’s black-and-white photographs of desert sand patterns, Mary Tomaskevitch’s figurative watercolors, Lois Stecker’s abstract pastels, Donna DeKindig’s landscape serigraphs, Dottie Korn-Davis’ powerful mixed-media abstract paintings, Polly Jacobs Giacchina’s natural fiber baskets, Beth King’s mixed-media abstractions, Roberta Klein’s black porcelain bowls and Eileen Gudmundson’s pastel glazed ceramic plates.

The show continues through June 28.

Still farther up the street, Perspectives Gallery (835 G St.) is hosting an exhibit by the Ceramic Artists of San Diego. Standouts are the salt glazed stoneware pots by David Wixey, small clay baskets by Jodi Walz, and a salt-glazed jar with a beautifully stylized handle by Carol Harmon. Naomi Ruth Harris’ primal pots, coil constructed from local clays and fired in a pit with kindling and dung, bridge thousands of years of civilization. Their traditional vessel forms and natural colors from earth and flame remind us that all art of merit is contemporary.

The show continues through June 30.

Now you deserve some refreshment next door at Java, the “art crowd hangout,” which co-owner Doug Simay has recently reinstalled with works from his personal collection.