Patton and Minshew Bring Their Unique Views to the Gallery in the New Year

The Viewpoint Gallery Exhibit opening January 7 features the photographs of Tom Patton and Wendell Minshew. Patton presents The City, a collection of his black-and-white images which attempt to raise a dialogue about the aesthetics of the landscape of architecture. Minshew offers Left Brain | Right Brain, a collection of juxtaposed black-and-white and color images as a visual quest to explore the natural and man-made elements of our world.

Wendell Minshew is an El Dorado County photographer and SVPAC member with over 20 years of photographic experience. He has harvested a range of subject matter, including landscapes, waterscapes, seascapes, man’s impact on the environment, modern and historical buildings, still life, abstracts, portraits, and figure studies. His exhibit juxtaposes traditional black-and-white photographs representing “right brain” (logical, organized, rational, analytical) with surreal manipulated Polaroid images representing his “left brain” (creative, intuitive, emotional, sensitive).

Tom Patton is Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at California State University, Chico. The interests exemplified in the series The City likely came from his father, who was an architect. The City portfolio, he says, concentrates on depicting cultural artifacts which are rendered as metaphors for our society’s attitudes towards both nature and humankind. Patton feels his densely packed grayscale “images are austere and beautiful, yet foreboding in their claustrophobic and astringent depiction of architectural space.”

Second Saturday Reception will be held at the Viewpoint Gallery, January 8, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.