#central features

  Central Features is a small art gallery that has only two artist’s work on display.The main theme of the artwork at Central Features, is the human effect on the surrounding environment; whether it be damage like forest fires or the way nuclear power plants destroy the environment. Nina Montenegro’s artwork collection titled “Regeneration” and Abbey Hepner’s “Control Room” photograph collection were on display.

Nina Montenegro: “Against Forgetting”

Nina Montenegro’s art pieces titled “Regeneration” are on the destruction forest fires brings to nature. Montenegro’s “Against Forgetting” piece is a “fingerprint” of tree rings before and after a fire. The rings before the fire are tight together and the rings after the fire are separated and looks as if the rings can be pulled apart. Like the tree rings, once nature is destroyed there is no putting it back together.

Nina Montenegro:  “Pioneers, Newberry Hill Clearcut I, II, III”

“Pioneers, Newberry Hill Clearcut I, II, III” is a three part series on the plant that are the first to regrow after a fire. The series is white leaf outlines on a blue paint background. Pioneer plants are the first to start the restoration process after a fire. The series shows that no matter how much nature is restored it will never return to it’s original state. What was destroyed in the fire will never be the same as before the fire.

Abbey Hepner: “Towers” Abbey Hepner’s photography collection called “Control Room” is on the building of a nuclear power plant in Georgia. The photograph “Towers” is of two tan cylindrical power plants with steam coming from the top of them. Nuclear power plants are not only destructive to the land by the pollution they let off, but are also destructive to the landscape beauty. Landscape is destroyed being that nuclear power plants are not pretty to look at and they take up land to be built.

Abbey Hepner: “House with a View”

The “House with a View” photograph shows a white town house with a white cylinder tower with steam coming from the top in the background. There are dead trees in front and by the nuclear power plant, showing the effect that the pollution has on nature by the dying of off trees.

(via Opening a Gallery in a Contemporary Art Desert)

ALBUQUERQUE — Writer, curator, and (now) gallery owner Nancy Zastudil summarized her experience opening a commercial art gallery in Albuquerque with one Facebook post: “When opening Central Features, approx 90% of the people I told in ABQ asked if it was a gallery of my own artwork.” She later told me that several other people also asked if the gallery was her studio.