For visual artist Juan Tejedor, real-world topography is a starting point, not a destination. In the small but wide-ranging exhibition “Standing Atop the Ladder,” the Washington-based artist offers intricate paintings and mixed-media works with inspirations that range from satellite images to transportation maps to the stars. In “Pangea as It Exists Today,” Tejedor pieces Africa and South America back together, flips them so they’re unrecognizable, and shades the areas based on how much human development has occurred. In “Bus Drawing—Pacific Migrations,” Tejedor draws dendritic forms on a wall in graphite, based on the flight patterns of birds; in “Bus Drawing,” he abstracts the grids, diagonals, and organic shapes of bus routes in D.C. and Alexandria. But two works from the “Night Sky” series, in which Tejedor attaches little balls of putty irregularly to rows of filaments, are the most compelling. The works’ inspiration is evident from their titles, but the pieces equally suggest birds perched on utility wires at sunset.

THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW TUESDAYS TO SATURDAYS FROM NOON TO 6 P.M. AT FLASHPOINT, 916 G ST. NW. FREE. (202) 315-1306.