I'm going to try quoting Baudelaire without sounding pompous (please feel free to mock me).

But this passage from Baudelaire's Le Voyage did come to mind when looking at the in/organic show by Curtis H. Arima at the West Gallery of the Richmond Art Center.

We saw stars
And waves; we saw sands, too;
And despite many crises and unforeseen disasters,
We were often bored, just as we are here.

In this one-man show Arima a talented metalsmith uses his skills in an attempt to recreate nature's handy work in unnatural settings. For example he creates two wall mounted pieces out of old window frames to form display cases for some nicely made tree limbs and vines fabricated from sheet metal and wire that are bisected by some unfortunately weak drawings of trees and vines. The purpose of this exorcise is unclear to me. It's not surreal work. It is pretty stuff probably better suited to a window display at an upscale dress shop like Anthropology rather than an art gallery.

This show seems very much like a display of parts rather than completed works.

The in/organic show runs from September 6th to October 30th
The Richmond Art Center
2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Phone: 510-620-6772
http://www.therichmondartcenter.org/html/new_exhibitions.html