Twenty-Two has become one of the more interesting spots in Plaza Midwood over the past couple of years. The bar/gallery continues to show some of the most exciting local art and its current photography exhibition is no exception.

Six Charlotte based photographers are displaying their work against Twenty-Two's newly painted black walls, and the timing couldn’t be better for the establishment’s updated look. It also gives more poignancy to the exhibit’s title, The Darkroom, though perhaps that’s merely a coincidence.

Dylan Chorneau, Richie McCorkle, Micah McSwain, Kenny Owens, Myk Pate, and Kevin Womack all have distinctive styles, yet The Darkroom feels anything but scattershot or incoherent. It is held together in part by the common thread of featuring local people and places, many of which come not only from Charlotte but from the Plaza Midwood neighborhood itself.

• Image by Kenny Owens

Kenny Owens comes from the film world but it’s clear that he’s having no trouble translating his eye to still photography. Many of his pictures contain motion and a cinematic, scene-like feel that make them appear as if they’re movie stills. His work bares a slight resemblance to Ryan McGinley and Brandon Herman’s work, though he admitted to not having heard of either and cited fashion photographer Terry Richardson as his main non-filmmaker influence.

Myk Pate’s contributions have a more glossy and flashy feel. His works appear as if they have been ripped from the pages of entertainment magazines. They grab your attention and made me think that this is what Larry Clark’s work might look like if he were a bigger fan of color and the more exuberant side of debauchery.

Micah McSwain and Richie McCorkle take a street photography approach. McSwain’s work most often centers around the detritus found on the street itself. The black and white photos present rust, decay and various debris in intimate close ups that allow the viewer to look at these usually unloved items as something worthy of careful and loving inspection.

McCorkle is showing work dating as far back as ’96, and extending to this year. His work focuses on street scenes; mostly skaters pulling off tricks or just hanging out. Fittingly, he is donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of his work to the “Let The Good Times Roll” skate park project.

Dylan Chorneau’s black-and-white portraits are among the most calm and focused compositions in the show. Shadow and obscurity play a big role in many of the pieces. Even when we can see the subjects’ faces they remain expressionless, giving nothing away.

• Image by Kevin Womack

Finally, Kevin Womack presents unique pieces which left me lingering and scratching my head, curious as to how he’s managed to create these surreal images. There are a couple straightforward pictures, and one tilt-shift photo, but the ones that are most accomplished and noteworthy are his stereographs. Womack explained to CLT Blog that he shoots multiple overlapped photographs by hand, usually about 10 to 45 for each individual stereograph, and then stitches them all together. He then morphs and stretches the stitched panoramic until he arrives at the desired final image. The result is wholly unusual and technically impressive. It’s the city and surrounding neighborhoods as seen through a distorting vortex. Womack has informally dubbed this series "Planet Charlotte," and for me they were the highlight of an already impressive show.

The Darkroom will be on display through March 26 at Twenty-Two (1500 Central Avenue).

John Hairston Jr.’s latest solo exhibition, Here’s What’s Left…, is a collection of works created over the past year. Most have never been shown in Charlotte until now, although they have made their way through much of the rest of the Southeast (Charleston, Atlanta and Columbia, to name a few). The paintings are on display throughout the month at Espada Bicycles in NoDa.

Hairston’s work is instantly recognizable. His colorful and often unpredictable palette, combined with his use of recurring characters, create a signature style that has helped him maintain a large following in recent years. Fellow Charlotte artist Thomas Michael (aka “UGLY”) insists that there are more than a few local artists pushing themselves to new heights simply in an attempt to catch up to Hairston’s talent.

• "Please, fix this..." All images courtesy of the artist.

There are several pieces in the show featuring one of his most recurrent characters, a Medusa haired woman (and in one painting a girl) named Magdelene, after the artist’s grandmother. When I expressed surprise that he’d name the man-eating character after his grandma, he corrected me, saying she wasn’t a man-eater. Instead, he claims, she’s just misunderstood. “She’s just a really pretty girl with a shit ton of baggage, and everyone knows somebody like that.”

One of the most intriguing and captivating paintings on display features the artist embracing Magdelene from behind with the one arm he has left. The other has been amputated, and apparently recently so as there appears to be blood and tendons still spewing from the open wound. The title, “My path of destruction was nothing by comparison…,” adds some context while maintaining a certain extent of ambiguity. This guarded illumination shows up in several of the paintings, in fact.

The work in Here’s What’s Left… draws from and pays homage to a rather disparate collection of influences; be it from Greek mythology (the aforementioned Magdelene character), Eastern religions (elephant heads, third eyes and multiple arms make several appearances), or personal heroes, such as the recently deceased artist and musician Rammellzee. Hairston created the piece “Once they were up, they had better be ready to fly…” as a way of saying goodbye to and letting go of an icon whose passing put an end to his dream of one day speaking with him and picking his brain for the many pieces of wisdom contained within.

• “My path of destruction was nothing by comparison…”

Some viewers may find themselves somewhat overwhelmed by the colliding cultural, mythological and religious pulls, which are at times presented collage-like in a single work. To say nothing of the attention grabbing vibrancy of the comic book style figures often found boldly populating the canvases. But it’s next to impossible to be underwhelmed by what Hairston creates, and it’s clear that these same attributes are what attracts those who appreciate the work. It’s a group that continues to grow, and the prolific artist shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

RubberMADE, Courtney Starrett’s current exhibition at the Winthrop University Galleries, is a collection of colorful necklaces, brooches, bracelets and rings that are inspired by the exuberance and optimism of the American consumer in the 1950s and early '60s, but also hint at the discord and disarray to come. Numerous aspects of the show — the materials, the titles, the visual references — are faithful to the era. Made primarily from silicone rubber, many of these pliable, jittery baubles can easily double as sculpture.

• Courtney Starrett, "It Doesn't Take an Expert to Grow a Beautiful Garden," 2009 silicone rubber, sterling silver, stainless steel and brass (photo: Zan Maddox)

Most of the pieces are exhibited on custom-made plexi display forms — torsos and hands that are clearly inspired by magazine ads. The forms are slightly smaller than life size, so the jewelry dominates them. But these plexi ladies are so perky that they seem oblivious to the fact that they are almost being consumed by their adornments.

The individual pieces are titled with advertising slogans, with results ranging from the appealing ("It Doesn’t Take an Expert to Grow a Beautiful Garden" pairs somewhat innocently with a set of flower rings embedded in a box of Astroturf.) to the ominous. ("The Sociable Choice" is a bracelet that looks like a sea anemone.)

• Courtney Starrett, "The Sociable Choice," 2008 silicon rubber and grommets (photo: Zan Maddox)

There are myriad visual sources including spaceships and food, but my personal favorite is the sticky, icky and threatening. The show abounds with tentacled objects that look like the spawn of predatory sea creatures and flowers, creating an alternate world in which smiling women happily attach suspicious life-forms to their bodies.

• Courtney Starrett, "Strawberry-Kiwi Jello," 2010 silicone rubber and sintered nylon (photo: Zan Maddox)

Complementing the jewelry is a wall installation consisting of vinyl strips with text and silicone flower forms mounted with upholstery tacks and powder-coated washers. Here again, Starrett begins with something conventional — cheery patterned wallpaper — and takes it in a different direction with her three-dimensional sci-fi flowers. Spread across a large expanse of wall in the boxy gallery, it is sprightly and charming. I would love to see this same installation in a more constricted space, where I think it would take on the slightly unnerving tone that Starrett brings to the rest of her work.

— Barbara Schreiber

Courtney Starrett: RubberMADE is on exhibit at the Elizabeth Dunlap Patrick Gallery, Winthrop University Galleries, Rock Hill S.C., through March 25.