Photo By Manifest Gallery

Anna Kipervaser's "Bedouin Fogcrow" is part of Manifest Gallery's Magnitude 7 exhibition, which requires that no work be more than 7 inches in any direction.

Experiencing a small work of art requires an intimacy between object and viewer. You must get up close and look carefully. Viewing becomes an activity of discovery and exploration rather than passive observation.

Manifest Gallery delivers an amazing selection of small works in its third annual Magnitude 7 exhibition, which presents 50 works by 30 artists representing 15 states and the United Kingdom. That's a lot of numbers, but the most important number here is seven -- no work could exceed 7 inches in any direction.

Manifest is already becoming known nationally for its quality, and artists consider it an honor to be selected for one of its exhibitions. This reputation pulls in a multitude of entries. A five-person committee juried 350 entries from 143 artists for this year's Magnitude 7, more than double that of last year. The results were further winnowed and curated by Jason Franz, Manifest's executive director, and Jeffrey Salter, a junior board member, resulting in a show that encompasses a wide range of media in both two and three dimensions.

While each of the 50 works warrants close inspection, in the spirit of the number seven, here are seven pieces that represent the breadth of this wonderful exhibition:

Angela Katona-Batchelor (Boise, Idaho), "The Body Paradox #12." This mixed-media construction can be unfolded to reveal hidden elements. Katona-Batchelor created movable, hand-colored etchings of biologically inspired forms mounted inside a Petri dish filled with resin. A shape of a human brain flips up to show an anatomical cross section, beneath which lies a mechanical form. The combination of human and human-made forms evokes the intellectual process of invention and the mysterious inner workings of the human mind and body, while the act of unfolding the piece mirrors the exploratory nature of science.

Anna Kipervaser (Chicago, Ill.), "Bedouin Fogcrow." During a recent visit to the Middle East, Kipervaser became enamored with the Bedouin people. In "Bedouin Fogcrow," she depicts a darkly colored bird with white plumage around its breast looking directly at the viewer. The bird is painted with astonishing realism, to the degree that we are almost convinced it is perfectly natural for a bird to wear a little red and white Bedouin headscarf. The painting is part of a series that explores difference and diversity, a theme that runs throughout Kipervaser's work and stems from her travels around the world. "I am pushed to paint," she writes in an e-mail, "by the traveling that I do."

Julie Mader-Meersman (Cincinnati), "Oxytocin Good." This miniature book made of wood, ephemera and color pencil drawings celebrates natural childbirth. Mader-Meersman, who had given birth to her first child a few months earlier, wanted to communicate the positive effects of the hormone oxytocin, which causes the production of feel-good endorphins during labor and facilitates the bond between mother and child. The book's inside cover reveals a vintage illustration of a mother with a baby in swaddling clothes. A tiny image of the female pelvic bone mounted on sections of measuring tape folds open to reveal a cross section of a germinating seed. The small format of the book further suggests a tiny embryo in the womb.

Ron Kroutel (Athens, Ohio), "Three Ducts." This small, nearly square oil painting depicts a gothic tangle of industrial architecture in the vein of an 18th-century Piranesi etching, but remains entirely modern. A shadowy tree form appears on the right, suggesting the encroachment of urbanization and industry upon nature. Although made as a small color study for a larger painting, "Three Ducts" is itself a finished work. "I cannot leave the many small color studies I do for larger paintings alone," says Kroutel in an e-mail message from Athens. "I keep poking at them, tweaking their surfaces ... often putting as much time into them as into the large jobs."

Jillian Moore (Iowa City, Iowa), "Symbogillis." Moore's polished, painted metal brooch resembles something strangely biological. A hybrid of natural forms, "Symbogillis" clings to the wall like a beautiful limpet or barnacle. According to Moore, the work is a "splice of organs and cells -- both plant and animal -- and a general mish-mash of my interests in science and pseudo-science." Finely crafted through a technical process used to electroform copper, the piece transcends its form as jewelry and becomes compelling sculpture.

Rob Thompson, (Columbus, Ohio), "Untitled." Thompson stacked painted rectangles of cardboard on top of each other to create multiple planes of color that project from the wall and defy categorization. "Sometimes I call them paintings, sometimes sculpture and sometimes collage," says Thompson during a phone interview from Columbus. The idea came when he was making colorful grid paintings and began cutting them apart. He then used each square to explore and adjust color and shifted them around, eventually combining them into three-dimensional constructions. Moving around the piece reveals its physical presence, offering a peek at how colors reflect and affect each other.

Jon Radermacher, (Sewickley, Pa.), "Shakers (Consumption Series)." Part modern design, part iconic sculpture, these aren't your typical salt-and-pepper shakers. Made of plastic, sterling silver and stainless steel, each anthropomorphic form -- one black, one white -- suggests a bound, plump body. Radermacher seeks to make a comment about our overindulgent society on its way to mass obesity. He contends that while designers of tableware consider aesthetics and ergonomics when creating an object, "they tend not to remind the user of the consequences of their actions." Grade: A