Scooter aesthetics

It is not uncommon on a second-Saturday art walk to find a local business, unaccustomed to peddling art, jumping on the art bandwagon by staging an exhibit. Usually, one gets the feeling that these shows are less significant, that they lack a certain quality because the shop is only moonlighting. Often, this is the case. Once in a while, though, a show will spawn in an unlikely location that turns out to be the exception. Such is the case this month at Vespa Haus, a scooter shop at 316 16th Street, which is showing the photography of Alex Zangeneh-Azam. The space itself works well as a gallery, and the exhibit, titled The Ride, does an excellent job of exposing what happens during the day. Zangeneh-Azam’s pieces expose scooter culture with insight and a strong sense of dynamics and leave the viewer with the feeling that they just saw a better show than most of the legitimate galleries had to offer. Zangeneh-Azam’s photos are up through the end of the month.