I’ve been eager to see Amy Toscani’s new show at St. Kate’s University, “Everyday Epic.” I’ve long admired her large-scale public art: a grand, candy-colored “Molecule” on the grounds of the University of Minnesota’s East Bank; the whimsical, many-armed “Rocco,” installed at the wonderful Franconia Sculpture Park; the latter  calls to my mind a jumble of things — billiards, the mid-century Space Race, a fun fair ride.

I saw the new exhibition this weekend, where just a handful of Toscani’s pieces are on view. In her artist statement, she calls the work “a mix of fantasy and 4-H … that references camp, kitsch and queer culture … [and] borrows heavily from Midwestern America.”

These are vaguely familiar, pop-cultural recombinants: a mélange of tropes, techniques and materials instantly evocative of a distinctly Middle American, late 20^th century upbringing filled with football and homespun Saturday afternoon crafts. She takes these elements and strips them apart, reassembling the pieces into something confounding and new—almost, but not quite recognizable and, because of that, a bit unsettling.

As I enter the small west wing of the university’s Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, my eye immediately goes to “Cosmos,” a new piece: it’s anchored to the floor by a roughly textured, ovoid asphalt base, sectioned off with lines demarcated by Great Northern beans; from the center of the pebbly black base emerges a steel frame reminiscent of a football goal post. And over that framework, she has woven a dense lattice of stretchy brown, yellow, white and olive strips of what looks like polyester jersey material ripped from the uniforms of some Anytown, U.S.A. varsity high school team.

On the walls, are two plush, fabric-and-string pieces; thick black thread is pulled over pins to create angular, geometric drawings. You likely made string art with this technique when you were a kid. One of Toscani’s string drawings, “Banking,” depicts a simple, box-like building, outlined with thick, obvious black stitching and whose front abuts a pyramid of some kind. Another, “Chinese Factory,” features a warehouse atop what looks a bit like a white, wooden boat, down the center of which drips a wide swath of inky black paint.

In one corner sits “Starfruit,” like a giant fortune teller puzzle, just like the kind we folded from paper at school but whose message is inscrutable. Across the room is the quite alien-looking “Earthling,” a large pod constructed of loosely joined linoleum pathways.

Toscani’s “Everyday Epic” work is ostentatiously handmade, and the seams where its parts are joined are plainly, self-consciously visible. There’s nothing slick or particularly polished about these sculptures. Simultaneously strange and familiar, the work feels at once in and out of synch with work-a-day experience. And maybe that’s precisely the point.

“Everyday Epic: The Wild, Weird, Wacky Work of Amy Toscani” will be on view at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery (West) through March 31 at Saint Catherine University; 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul, Minn. Gallery hours are Mon. through Fri. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., noon to 6 p.m. For more information: http://www.stkate.edu/gallery/11-12/everyday_epic.php.