'Prop Fiction'
White Columns
154 Christopher Street
West Village
Through Feb. 23

This exhibition takes a brief look at a growing slice of the realist pie: contemporary sculptures that imitate life without getting too realistic about it. It has a nice if derivative Pop Art energy in the spirit of Claes Oldenburg, Red Grooms and Robert Arneson.

While Brigitte Zieger recreates the dissembled parts of a Mercedes sports coupe in cardboard, Niki Lederer turns to black glazed ceramic to make 50 pairs of women's shoes in up-to-the-minute styles, and Anne Chu puts a friendly twist on the hunting trophy with nearly life-size bear heads in cast resin. Lawrence Seward suggests a domestic drama with ''Bustin' the Father,'' an imitation washing machine that is also a beer stash, and other contributions are made by Chuck Genco, Hans van Meeuwen and Stacey Lancaster.

Also noteworthy is the small ''White Room'' exhibition of Guy Overfelt, a 28-year-old photographer and video artist from San Francisco whose Conceptual Art antics combine aspects of Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, Don Celander, Julia Scher and even Rirkrit Tiravanija. Surveillance is one of Mr. Overfelt's interests, as is making use of whatever he can get free, including company postcards, advertising mailers and sample newspapers.

The strength of his work lies in his ability to weave together so many different, rather attenuated, strands of Conceptualism while making a complete pest of himself. -ROBERTA SMITH