IT WAS SORT of a Stand by Me moment last summer when San Francisco artist Nathaniel Price saw the drowned body. He hadn't been searching for it like the boys in the movie were, but it was still a transformative and inspirational experience (after the sick feeling wore off). He started doing research on drowning victims – learning what happens to their bodies at each stage of the process – and began his "Another Matter" series of drawings. Each one is a collection of spirograph-like designs arranged in a life-size human shape. Some of his works form the clear outline of a body; in others the body appears to be halfway dissolved – a floating, nebulous, vaguely humanoid form that isn't really corpselike at all. Price's drawings convert physical turmoil into an almost abstract process, as if the body is just a constellation of stars that feels no pain as it gracefully falls apart. His "Border Crossing" sculpture series is also included in the exhibition, and these spare constructions of steel and wood seem right at home in Gallery Lux's shiny new ultramodern art space (this is only the gallery's third show). Price has burned a cross section of his own form on horizontal layers of wood with a jigsaw and a blowtorch. Whoever helped him take the measurements must have been a close personal friend, because you can easily make out the shape of his genitalia and all kinds of other body parts, such as the place where his arms join his torso, that also seem very intimate in this unusual presentation. The finished works are meditations, not only on human anatomy but also on borders and boundaries in general and the various ways in which they can be traced and transgressed. Wed.-Fri., 1-5 p.m., and by appt., 521 Seventh St., S.F. (415) 864-2222. (Lindsey Westbrook)

'Film Show'
Through July 13, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery