Nautical Notes: Mari, Navi e Naufragi

A week has passed but I am still thinking of the delightful show I saw at Centotto Gallery last Friday. Like many others, I am often wary of art shows in super-hip, most up-and-coming art communities, particularly when the invitation uses self-consciously heightened language, with additional remarks in a foreign tongue. This usually suggests that I am to arrive as a connoisseur with a depth of understanding,  a facility with a type of terminology that in truth I do not have, nor believe is necessary for every viewer. Such shows then tend to make me feel uncomfortable, when I do go to them, as if I were not good enough for the work on view.

This is not the case with Centotto Gallery's current show Nautical Notes: Mari, Navi e Naufragi. The show is a pleasure to see. The curator Paul D'Agostino invited artists with good work and placed them in the small space to draw the viewer into each work, so that each work can be admired, while also enjoyed together. The works vary in style but are placed in relationship to each other so as to complement and enhance themselves and each other. There are traditional seascapes, photographs, whimsical sculptures, a massive drawing, but it does not feel like a forced attempt to mix media but rather an honest representation of a response to a topic by modern artists. The show makes no theoretical claims but rather permits each artist to present a piece in loose affiliation with the nautical theme.

Though the art works well together, any of them could be owned and enjoyed in one's home on its own. Sometimes group shows require the rest in order for the works to make sense, provide the pleasure they suggest. Perhaps due to the simplicity of the theme, each work in Nautical Notes can rise to achieve its own presence, anchored through their foundation but allowed to float on their own merit. I found these works to be a true pleasure and hope to return and see them again.

Some shows are worth the voyage there. Whether the L train is running or not, find your way to Centotto Gallery at 250 Moore St #108 (off the Morgan Ave L stop) and let the works by Harry Gold, Adam Thompson, Josh Willis, Alice Lynn McMichael, Tim Kent, Zane Wilson, Rebecca Litt, Joel Dugan, Chris Wyrick, Rachel Day, Warren Holt and Paul Bergeron sail you on your own imaginative journey.