Courtesy of the artist/Frank Stone Gallery

"Mask" by Rabi Sanfo, steel, 2007.

There's a good story behind the title of Rabi Sanfo's first solo show, "L'âge du Fer," now at Frank Stone Gallery. It began with an epiphany.

"I got my start as a furniture craftsman, just welding metal rods together to make simple, functional designs by commission," he says. "I only recently began making art. Until the last few years, it had never really occurred to me to use my skills that way."

He goes on, "So when I began making sculpture, it was a revelation, an unexpected gift. And it became a way for me keep my native culture of Burkina (Faso) close, and to remember the folktales and parables of my childhood that still linger with me. When I found I could do something creative with metal, like this, it seemed to me a little like the way people in the Iron Age — the ones who first discovered the magic of bending, smelting, and shaping metal — must have felt." (Visit the artist's website to see examples of his work.)

Sanfo moved to the United States from Burkina Faso just a few years ago, in 2004, with his wife, a native Midwesterner; the two met and fell in love during their stint as Peace Corps volunteers in Africa. "But the traditions of Burkina taught me about integrity, how to be a full human being," the artist says. "They are who I am."

Indeed, his West African roots are evident in every long curve of his stylized pieces: lithe, elongated female figures with baskets atop their heads ("like the women in my village," he says); distinctive, occasionally ferocious masks; elegant animal forms and sparely rendered warrior figures.

You just have a few more days to see Rabi Sanfo's exhibition of sculpture, "L'âge du Fer." The show wraps up Sunday, and there will be a public closing reception at Frank Stone Gallery in honor of the artist tonight from 5-9 pm. The artist will also open his studio in the Q.arma Building for the Art-a-Whirl festivities in May.