For the first time in several years, painter and gallerist Michael Certo is turning the walls of his own space over to himself.
Synecdoche, a solo exhibition of 21 new paintings, opens Saturday, Feb. 21 at AC2 Contemporary Art and marks Certo’s first solo presentation at the gallery in four or five years. The title, pronounced “sin-eck-doh-key” refers to a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole – like using the word “wheels” to refer to a car. “It’s a figure of speech. It’s like a metaphor,” says Certo.
The timing, Certo explains, felt natural.
“This is my place. I’ve run this gallery for 30 years, so I’ve shown like 500 different artists here in 30 years,” says Certo. “This show is a solo show of my own paintings, and I only show my work maybe every four or five years. So it’s time. I have, like, 21 new paintings that I haven’t shown before.”
For decades, Certo has primarily used the space to highlight other artists in the community.
Curating his own work, Certo notes, comes with a certain ease born of experience. “I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s pretty easy for me to fit the work in the space,” says Certo. “It’s much easier to hang a solo show when it’s aesthetically similar than if you had a two or three person show where it’s theme-based. This is just my work, so you’ll see a lot of the same symbols and color palettes that are similar throughout the whole gallery.”
Though the exhibition represents a concentrated body of recent work, Certo sees both change and continuity in his practice.
“There has been a shift, it really has to do with life,” says Certo. “I paint all the time. I mean, I’ve been painting for 40 years. There’s a shift all the time, and there’s also a continuation of a lineage from the beginning of using similar processes, which is my work is all about experimentation and processes that I’ve been developing over the years.”
The show also offers a rare glimpse inside the studio for fellow artists and longtime supporters.
“Being a painter, you’re somewhat isolated, and studio work is kind of individual,” says Certo. “This is showcasing all the work I’ve done in the last four or five years.”
Synecdoche opens Saturday, Feb. 21, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m., and will run until March 29. Regular gallery hours are Sundays from 12 to 4 p.m. or by appointment. AC2 Contemporary Art is located at 301 Mountain Rd. NE.