We’ve all had days where things just weren’t going our way. Maybe it starts to rain on your walk to work and you don’t have an umbrella. Or a passing car splashes you unsuspectingly. Or your boss decides to micromanage your entire day. Whatever the case, pessimism has, at least for a time, sunken into our minds and dictated our emotions. Some local creatives, though, have channeled that negative thinking into an art exhibit aptly called The Power of Negative Thinking.

“The Power of Negative Thinking celebrates cynicism and despair.”

Opening Jan. 16 at The New Art Center in Newtonville, The Power of Negative Thinking celebrates cynicism and despair. Two featured artists hail from Boston: Stephen St. Francis Deck of West Roxbury and Kirk Amaral Snow of Jamaica Plain. Michael Gaughran is the curator, a Long Island native who now resides in nearby Waltham.

According to The New Art Center, “The projects on view exist in a world where happiness is seen as the ultimate commodity, and thinking positively is the solution for all that ails us.” The installments aim to challenge the traditional line of thinking we employ when experiencing good and bad.

“By approaching the darker things in life through an intelligent, often humorous, lens,” suggests The New Art Center, “the artists confidently acknowledge that not every glass needs to be half full.”

Kirk Amaral Snow’s piece, seen above in the top left, is called When Transition Becomes Stasis. The collapsible ladder uses a permanent barricade to keep people from walking beneath it as a means of coping with anxiety.

Another artist, Anthony Montuori of Malden, created a video game called The Adventures of Sisyphus that can never be won, offset by vibrant graphics and a sentimental storyline that keeps the user engaged and comforted despite facing sure defeat.

The exhibit, which prompts viewers to confront their sense of emotional stability and reconsider how best to achieve a positive sense of self, will only be on display from Jan. 16 to Feb. 21.