Don't let your excitement over what to wear to the polls deter you from seeing Jennifer Moses' knock-out show at Nahcotta through Nov. 1-twenty-three abstract paintings that pack a pleasing wallop.

Moses' complex but compact vision infers a range of sources. She spent two years in Italy, and an interest in the uncontrived nature of early Italian Renaissance art is present. "Giotto's Hair" mimics Giotto's charming conversions of shape to form. Moses' color, closer to the Sienese school's poetic proportions of elegant harmonies, ably plies expressive potential. The strong, gestural color of "Something in the Curl Wants Out" conveys bridled frustration, and the somber color of the large "Untitled" possesses the fervent but soothing introversion of a string section's darker chords. Understated color and spatial tension in "Curtain" cleverly veil intention. A savvy design sense that supports emotional purpose intuitively organizes each picture to its surprising finish.

However moved by Giotto's guilelessness Moses is, the solipsistic vigor of her work is that of the abstract expressionist devotee. Terry Winters, biomorphic painter (recently of linear entanglements), and his hero, Philip Guston, abstract expressionist icon whose formal brilliance is outshone only by his comic/tragic intensity, are also present. As it is for her role models, composition for Moses is not the start but the culmination of the painting process. Each painting is a predicament whose unique resolution will be richly re-experienced by the viewer.

Guston painted, among other things, hair-like webs conjuring the contours of intimacy, and his wife Musa's head of hair as a strange but comforting monolith. Hair's symbolism ranges from Eve's shame, to Samson's power, to Lady Godiva's sensuality. Anxiety about hair loss and bad haircuts now plague both genders, as hairstyle attaches itself to issues of identity.

A hallmark of artistic maturity is when associations brought to the work don't overwhelm the artist's vision. The novel "In the Cut," a popular erotic thriller about brainy, self-sabotaging, female curiosity, may suggest itself to other viewers of "In the Curl." The title of this show, however, is from the first line -"something in the curl wants out"-of a poem by Jean Monahan, "Medusa Cuts Her Hair." Monahan writes, "lately I've let myself go; strange thoughts spring from my scalp," and "people tease me, say I've lost my head." Snake-haired Medusa's hideous visage petrified anyone who beheld it. Feminism may consider Medusa a symbol of fear and degradation of female power, and even of female self-loathing. While Moses' paintings share none of Medusa's ugliness, they do, like the lovely severed head of Medusa Caravaggio painted on a shield, express visceral aggression subordinated to beauty. Painting is a safe place for a girl to go wild.

The serpentine forms in Moses' vocabulary bring to mind those unpopular symbols of Satan. But snakes also represent fertility, healing and wisdom. Likewise, springing variously forth like so many unruly hairs from Moses' imagination are a multitude of beauties: the convoluted "Tresses," the playful "Curl," the irascible "Tress," the cagey "Woven Strands," the addled "Portrait," the demure "Hair Flip," and the exhuberant, transfiguring "Hair Plume." Not unlike the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead, Moses masterfully renders emotion's raw edges, as well as its softer terrain.

"In the Curl" will be at Nahcotta, 110 Congress St., Portsmouth, through Nov. 1.