Viewpoint Photo Gallery

It looks bigger on the outside, like a reverse TARDIS.

For my first gallery visit, I decided to take a little trip to the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center and see what they had to offer.

This is most of the gallery, right here.

The short answer is "not very much". This gallery is positively tiny. That doesn't detract from the quality of the art itself, which is actually quite good--more on that shortly--but when the whole experience consists of two very small rooms with less than one hundred photos in all, it all amounts to an underwhelming experience. But on the bright side, it's free.

See those chairs in the picture above? They were facing this wall. I wasn't kidding when I said this room was tiny.

The current exhibit, "Living on a Dollar a Day", is a series of photos by Renée C. Byer of different people around the world living in impoverished conditions. All of these photos have short biographies of the subject explaining who they are, where they live in the world, and what sort of lives they lead. Most of the photos are deeply sobering, showing people surviving in extreme circumstances, but some of the photos do show people in more positive moments. Byer marvelously captures the humanity of her subjects no matter what their lives are like. As the exhibit's title implies, these are people who live on a dollar a day or less, and the photos show many different sides to these people. The skill with which the photos are taken is also impressive, using an array of techniques to emphasize the emotion of every shot, and all of it is in stunningly vivid color.

I suppose I should also mention a small backroom--emphasis on small here--with some black and white prints of landscape photography.

I have no idea what this is, but it's gorgeous.

It's nice and all, but there are maybe a dozen or so photos there. Really, it's nothing I wouldn't expect to see at any other photo gallery. It's nothing against the photographers, but when you can see the almost the entire exhibit at once as soon as you walk into the room, it's hard to feel compelled to stay very long.

I can't say this was a bad visit; the photography in the exhibit was beautiful and thought-provoking, particularly in the case of Byer's work. However, the small selection means you can see the whole thing in well under half an hour. You'd have to be a seriously dedicated photography aficionado to feel compelled to stay any longer than that, but really, if you're that into photography, you could probably find someplace better than this.

Overall, I rate this visit White Chocolate.

The Chocolate Scale

Ahoy!

Before we start art-snarking--snarting, if you will--I'm going to give you all a brief rundown of how this blog rates things. Now, normal blogs might use things like stars, but everybody knows you can't eat stars and things you can eat are better than things you can't eat. Chocolate, as we all know, is tasty and easily consumed. This, of course, means chocolate is inherently the superior method by which to rate contemporary art. Without further ado, I present to you the Chocolate Scale of Ratings.

Carob

"You are not chocolate and I reject you."

Baking Chocolate

"Looks like chocolate. Tastes like spleens."

Palmer Easter Bunny

"Hollow, flavorless, and utterly disappointing."

A Handful of Chocolate Chips

"Better than nothing--shameful if there's literally anything else."

White Chocolate

"Meh."

Novelty M&Ms

"Tasty and fun!"

A King-Sized Bar on Halloween

"Expecting good? Get awesome instead!"

The REALLY Good Piece in the Valentine's Box

"Awwww yissss!"

S'mores

"Requires some effort to get, but extremely satisfying once you do."

Toblerone 

"Practically perfect in every way."

I think this rating scale speaks for itself, really. I don't know why the whole world doesn't use it already.
Chop-chop, World.

-mela

Contemporary art critique blog? I'm thinking YES.

Because the world needs more internet critics!

Hello to all the millions of people who will no doubt read this drop in an ocean of art-related blogs! I'm melaredblu and I'll be your server, dishing up critiques and musings on contemporary art displays through the next few months. If you've got a dry sense of humor, an interest in recent works of art, or just loads and loads of time to kill, stick around. This blog won't bite.

Hard.