PATRICK LOCICERO'S RECENT collage paintings describe the idea of travel, not only in the usual at-home or abroad sense but also in a more symbolic way, alluding to trips through time and consciousness. Some of the most charming works in "Travels by Patrick LoCicero" are his oil paintings on cigar boxes. Hav-A Tampa obviously recalls Florida, where the cigars are made, but it's also encrusted with postage stamps from Palestine, India, and Senegal – sort of a grab bag of exotic-sounding locales. The old-fashioned bowler hat LoCicero painted on top of the collage gives the work a deliberate datedness, making it less about international travel and more about a sense of strangeness or foreignness – which is reinforced by the simultaneous references to René Magritte and surrealism. The Writer, a larger oil and collage on canvas, includes several restaurant matchbooks that at first seem rather domestic: "Nettie's Café, Pullyaup, WA" and "Superb Dining: Steaks, Seafoods, Chicken." But the work also suggests a sense of estrangement from contemporary life; the days of independently owned roadside diners are as foreign to most people's experience, LoCicero seems to imply, as a trip to Senegal. Particularly remarkable are four hanging collages, each over five feet long, composed of antique paper ephemera the artist has cut into strips and woven together. Women's Hats includes pictures of old-fashioned appliances, something that looks like a flower-arranging manual, and quilting patterns. Its complex texture and layering dramatically contrast with the simplistic Victorian idea of femininity being all about flowers and sewing. By manipulating these relics of the past into something so visually intricate, LoCicero restores some of the complexity and depth that history tends to smooth away. Tues.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m., 210 Post, Suite 205, S.F. (415) 956-3560. (Lindsey Westbrook)