Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

During our travels I’ve learned that I’m not really a fan of contemporary art. I just don’t “get” most of it. So unless there’s something Doug wants to see, I’m generally ready to skip it. However, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, Virginia, had a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture that I wanted to see, so off we went.

The Chihuly piece is Mille Colori, and it is magnificent. It is 14-feet long, hanging high above in a pavilion built specifically to showcase it (though how there is not an upper gallery to view it from the side is beyond me!).

The work is made of 520 separate pieces and weighs more than 2,000 pounds, and its name means “1,000 colors.” We were there on a gray day, I can only imagine what this looks like when bathed in sunlight.

One of the current exhibits featured the work of Spencer Tinkham, and we both really liked what we saw. Tinkham’s work is inspired by birds, reflected in the color and patterns of his art. The cover photo to this post is Tinkham’s Ramphastos sulfuratus, inspired by a toucan.

*Cabinet of Marine Debris,* Mark Dion, 2014. This macabre cabinet of curiosities is made up of items found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

*The Classical Mind (Scala Naturae and Cosmic Cabinet),* Mark Dion, 2017. Per the accompanying card, this piece “depicts the belief system that humans belong at the top of the natural order. It shows the hierarchy of life created by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s classification of all known organisms.”

One could enter the door underneath *The Classical Mind*. This is the view inside, running underneath the staircase.

Another exhibit was Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, which was dark and a bit depressing, but also engaging and thought-provoking. The exhibit description reads in part,

Each display becomes a theater of dissent. Dion’s taxidermy dioramas and specimen cabinets unveil the truth of our strained relationship with nature. Rockman’s dense, populated landscapes depict the apocalyptic visions of a world in peril.