“at the center of it all”
The Healthcare Gallery & Regenerative Spa
3488 Brentwood Dr.
Baton Rouge
Showing through June 26
The waiting room of any office is like a rite of passage into what will likely be the most expensive few minutes of your week. Many contain generic looking art, aggressive posters or maybe even a few toys, magazines and reruns of “The Office” playing silently in the background.
But the Healthcare Gallery & Regenerative Spa in Baton Rouge has chosen to take things up a notch by turning their waiting room space into a full-on art gallery with rotating installations. From March through June 26, they’re showing “at the center of it all,” an installation curated by Ellemnop Art featuring local Baton Rouge artists reflecting on what’s left after we strip away external distractions and pressures.
Walking into the gallery/spa without an appointment is not as awkward as one would think. One doesn’t have to be waiting for anything to enjoy the art. Once inside, there’s a lot to look at: silk screen prints, paintings, intricate drawings. Among all the artists, Brad Jensen has a dedicated section in a back room.
Jensen is a graphic designer and artist known for his propaganda-style artwork. His work can be found in museums, the Baton Rouge Airport and many homes across the city in the form of posters, T-shirts and prints. But there’s something about seeing an original rather than just a framed print that stops you in your tracks. The curators seem to know this, because they chose to hang “Denihilsm” right by the entrance of the waiting room, away from Jensen’s other work.
The piece depicts a man in the midst of a fire, covering his eyes and smiling. Instead of smooth, solid color blocks that are typical for Jensen’s work, the piece features paint cracks, as if chipping under the stress of the fire or time or both. It’s an interesting inclusion for the spa and for an exhibit that's supposed to be about “the quiet truths, the emotional landscapes, the connective tissue of our shared humanity.”
What is our shared humanity right now? Is it being together in the fire? Is it denial that the fire is raging? Probably a mix of both. But to experience the waiting room of a wellness spa as the place where one reflects on that is interesting. The pieces don’t come with long explanatory panels about the artist's intention or the curators’ rationale for inclusion. It’s just the art, the title, artist, medium, dimensions and price. Maybe the art speaks for itself, and is otherwise just a part of the waiting room decor. It all depends on the eye of the beholder.
