By now, the ongoing "Gestures" series of exhibitions at the Mattress Factory on the North Side, which pit local artists and people from other disciplines against the empty rooms of the Mattress Factory's annex building on Monterey Street, have become a comfortable part of our local art scene. In the fourth "Gestures" exhibition, currently on view, it seems the participants have gotten quite comfortable with it, too. But that is not necessarily a good thing. After all, comfortableness can breed complacency, and complacent artists are prone to making pedestrian works. With an ever-increasing attendance for each successive "Gestures" opening reception and the show's curators, Graham Shearing and Michael Olijnyk, being swamped with requests by artists to be included in each new iteration, it's obvious that the show is built on a good idea -- that each chosen participant shall create a small, site-specific work of art in a short amount of time. It's an idea, Olijnyk says, that most embrace because of the limited exhibition opportunities for artists in our area and the long lead times it takes for most shows to get under way. "You're not waiting a year to show something," Olijnik says. "I think artists want to show what they just did, and this is one of those shows where you can actually do that." But it seems that with each new "Gestures" exhibition the resultant works are losing their luster. Overall, they have become less challenging, and the artists are challenging themselves even less. Gone are the days of the first "Gestures" exhibition more than a year and a half ago, when florist Tom Bedger filled two rooms to sensory overload with mounds of fallen leaves, artist David Pohl brought his version of Paul Klee's "Twittering Machine" to life and the graphic design firm Wall-to-Wall Studios combined Islamic prayer rugs with video of a distorted American flag. In fairness, since then each "Gestures" has had participants that have grasped the challenge and used it to its full potential. But as the series goes on, they are becoming fewer and far between. In this exhibition, those with standout works among the 11 participants include glass artist Robin Stanaway, painter David Stranger, shopkeeper Richard Parsakian and Liz Reed, owner of Gallery in the Square in Shadyside. Visitors might remember Stanaway's work from her installation last year at the Pittsburgh Glass Center called "The River," where she suspended plates of slumped glass in the form of Pittsburgh's three rivers. Here, she uses a similar method, but instead has suspended nearly 150 pairs of eyeglasses linked together to form a twisting rectangle roughly 3 feet by 8 feet in size. As in her previous piece, the lighting heightens the sense of drama contained in the work as light glimmers through and off of the various clear and shaded lenses. Placed in a stairwell, the piece has the benefit of being able to be seen from multiple views and enjoyed in a purely abstract sense. Also in an unusual place is Stranger's piece "Leap Frog." Located in a long hallway on the second floor, the piece is made up simply of a painting of a crouching nude male figure painted in clear acrylic gel medium on a round mirror. There are two incandescent bulbs placed at the other end of the hallway, causing a double reflection of the painting. What is remarkable is the tonality achieved in the reflections versus the simplicity of the painting. On the second floor as well, but in a small room, Parsakian, an inveterate collector and owner of Eons Fashion Antique in Shadyside, has tapped into the obsessive nature of all collectors by filling the room with various collectibles he has accumulated over the years such as tin toys, cartoon character glasses and video discs. Delivering a message about the frustrations that can arise from obsessively acquiring objects, Parsakian has sagaciously chosen to include several waterlogged cardboard boxes in the display and left many of the objects wrapped in newspapers. On the third floor, Reed's piece, "Seedling Painting," is about as site-specific as any could get. It's an inclined lattice propped next to a window into which Reed has placed potted seedlings. The seedlings are growing toward the incoming sunlight. The piece offers one of the most intriguing responses among all of the works both visually and conceptually. The remaining works are more perfunctory. The artists either have chosen to show pieces from ongoing projects -- such as James Dugas' abstract acrylic paintings, which he has been creating for more than 20 years, or Pam Bryan's series of photographs of rock star Mick Jagger's hand gestures -- or creating pieces that are extensions of personal interests, such as museum director Judy O'Toole's collection of art postcards that fill one wall or graphic designer Paul Schifino's playful interpretation of a friend's name. The curators can't be blamed for these banal works. After all, as mentioned above, "Gestures" was founded on a solid idea. Even though the mix of participants they pick for each is always interesting, as Olijnyk says, "It's hard to figure out what you're going to get." But in the end, it is an art show. In particular, it is an art show driven by its participants. What they make makes the show. Looking around, Olijnyk says about this current Gestures exhibition: "It seems that this one is much more two-dimensional." If, by that, Olijnyk means to say that the show is flat, he's absolutely right.

'Gestures: An exhibition of small site-specific work'

Through April 6. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. $6; $4 for senior citizens and students; free for members and children. Free admission on Thursdays. Mattress Factory, 1414 Monterey St., North Side. (412) 231-3169 or www.mattress.org .

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