A breath of fresh air blows into town, and more about oil

Blake Gopnik sure does seem to like photography lately.  Take a look at this review of Terri Weifenbach's exhibition that just opened at the awesome Civilian Art Project's new space in the former Warehouse, 1019 7th Street, NW, next door to the new Passenger bar.  

The latest show of photographs by Terri Weifenbach is a breath of fresh air. That's almost literally true. Walk into "Woods," which on Friday inaugurated Civilian Art Projects' new space beside the convention center, and you feel you're taking a walk in a forest. Weifenbach has managed to immerse us in nature, but without relying on the cliches that art has used to tell us we're supposed to feel immersed in nature. That makes her show one of the best I've ever seen in a commercial gallery in Washington.

A couple months ago, Gopnik seemed a little down on photography when he said this about photography, "This year, photography is celebrating its 170th birthday. There's a chance that, in its old age, it is starting to suffer straitened circumstances. Some genius may need to come along and bail it out." Maybe Weifenbach's "breath of fresh air" is just what photography needed.

More art writing: Modern Art Notes provides some insight into Edward Burtynsky's oil photographs in an interview with the artist HERE.