Weekly Wrap-Up for May 19 – June 01, 2017

ocean liner x perimeter x stargazing x to see

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PLATFORM 19: Letha Wilson, Hawaii California Steel

When: On view through May 2018

Where: deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Rd, Lincoln, MA 01773

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “Hawaii California Steel (Figure Ground) brings large-scale photography to the Sculpture Park. A site-specific commission, this 10-foot-tall sculpture made of intersecting steel plates will feature larger than life-size photographs of the desert and jungle. Taken during Letha Wilson’s recent travels to Joshua Tree National Park and Kauai Island of Hawaii, these fragmented views of contrasting terrains will create compelling shifts of scale and perspective within deCordova’s cultivated New England landscape. Hawaii California Steel stretches the boundaries of outdoor sculpture by using new digital imaging technologies that print directly onto metal, thus bridging new forms of photo-mechanical representation with the legacy of large-scale outdoor steel sculpture.”

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The Creative Process

When: On view through June 17, 2017

Where: New Art Center, 61 Washington Park, Newtonville, MA 02460

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “The Creative Process is the New Art Center’s annual student and faculty exhibition featuring work by artists of all ages.”

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Lord Help Us Get It All Together: Irzyk + O’Day

When: On view through May 28 2017

Where: Lens Gallery, 524 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118

What/Why: “Lord Help Us Get It All Together is based purely in dreams and in the creative mind. When Adam O’Day was a child, something in his Grandfather’s basement caught his eye. Near the desk and the workbench hung a Shroud of Turin Hologram, and a plaque reading, “Lord Help Us Get It All Together.” When the family would visit, they would sleep in the basement, and the Hologram would follow them around the room, as they got ready for bed. Adam didn’t know it was Jesus of Nazareth at the time, but he saw him as a mystical being, inspiring many years of thinking about who this Hologram could be. Was he a pirate or a warlock of some kind? He asked Grandpa George and was told that the Shroud of Turin proves Jesus was in fact the Savior. George spent a good portion of his life working to validate the shroud along with the Catholic Church. Adam now possesses these family relics as fond keepsakes of his Grandparents George and Kate. Kate worked at the Atlanta High Museum and taught Adam much about art at a young age. This show is dedicated to Kate and George, who were always searching for answers.

This exhibit aims to bridge the gap between two planes of consciousness, and blends the mind’s eye with memories. The artist explores the connections between them with expressive color, mark-making rhythms and drawing. As a musician and a drummer, Adam uses patterns of color and rhythmic brushstrokes to build structures and layer paint. There is an inner hopefulness to the work, with an underside of desperation. One of the paintings for the show is the Fall of Humanity octagon. Here, we see despair and human agony, illustrating just how grave our futuristic vision has become. But with all patterns, life’s lows will always be outshined by humanity’s colorful beauty.

“’Why do you use all the colors of the rainbow, at the same time?’ They say. Because when we live in such a gray, hopeless place, you need some bright neons and pastels to bring out all the cheerful things in life. I draw from life. I paint from what the memory felt like.” – Adam O’Day, BDCwire

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For the past year Vanessa Irzyk has been focusing on a series of circular paintings. They are 17.25″ in diameter and created with acrylic paint on 300 lb watercolor paper. The paintings are an exploration of shapes and patterns in space. Each painting is evoked by the background color palette: a blurry space created with bright almost neon colors applied by thin acrylic paint. From there, shapes are created both opaque and patterned. Each part of the painting is inspired by the previous shape and is meant to transport the viewer to a hypnotic and unusual space. The paintings can make sense from a distance yet at closer view the audience can investigate the intricate shapes and sometimes-obsessive patterns made from a flat brush.

Throughout the years Irzyk has used color as her concurrent theme. Finding the right combination and balance is a great challenge and creates a satisfying game. Her 4” x 6” assemblages come from the excess paper cut from the circle shapes. They are tiny experiments, where the paper is so small the brushstrokes can make a greater impact. These small paintings serve as “sketches” for bigger paintings while being able to stand in a group; tiny soldiers all in line.

“People always think my paintings look like they were made on the computer, but each line is painted with a flat brush. The pattern making process is zen and meditative. I enjoy making work that looks machine-made in its uniformity, yet when you look close you see the human hand and subtle error.” -Vanessa Irzyk

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Danna Ruth Harvey: Breath of Life

When: On view through May 27 2017

Where: Chase Young Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, No. 57, Boston, MA 02118

How: Official Website 

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Planes in the Sky

When: On view through July 01, 2017

Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 24, 6-8pm

Where: FPAC Gallery at Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress Street, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why:“How does technology alter the human and natural landscape? How will humans, as a species, evolve and change over time? Planes in the Sky queries the significance and consequences of human progress, highlighting how advancement alters the landscape. The fifteen artists presented here examine how ingenuity evolves personal and cultural perspectives. Exploring modern science, stargazing, evolving architecture, nature and machine, Planes in the Sky offers a new idea of discovery.

Curator: Renée Ricciardi

Artists:
Susan Blatt
Douglas Breault
Betsy Connors
Andrew Fish
Navidreza Haghighimood
Jeffrey Heyne
Lucang Huang
Courtney Jordan
Cassandra Klos
Michael MacMahon
Filipe Miguel
mona miri
Jeremy Starn
Mark Stock
Emily Valle”

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RISD Grad Show 2017

(prior work of Makia Sharp)

When: On view May 25 through June 03, 2017

Opening Reception: May 24, 2017 6-8PM

Where: Rhode Island Convention Center, Exhibition Hall A, One Sabin Street, Providence, RI

How: Official Website

What/Why: “RISD’s 2017 Graduate Thesis Exhibition presents an expansive range of fine art and design work by the 235 students completing master’s degrees at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) this spring. On view in the Rhode Island Convention Center’s 28,000-sf Hall A, the show gives graduate students the space to exhibit multiple pieces or large installations from a final body of thesis work. This represents two or three years of research, experimentation, critical thinking and production in one of RISD’s 16 graduate departments.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from 12–5 pm daily between May 25 and June 3, with an opening reception on May 24 from 6–8 pm. In conjunction with RISD Commencement on Saturday, June 3, the show is open from 10 am–6 pm.”

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Capstone ‘17

When: On view through June 23, 2017

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 25, 2017 from 6-8 pm

Where: U Mass Boston, University Hall Gallery, University Hall, in Room 1220. University Dr. N, Boston, MA 02125

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “Capstone ’17 is a group exhibition of student artworks made during the course ART 380: Capstone.  

Featuring artworks by: Nia Duong, Rixy Fernandez, Nate Heilman, Stephen Henderson, Joshua Mariano, Basil Nkenchor, Jonathan Obin, Jesus Pizarro, Weronika Polska, Li Wang, Daniel Wong, & Eric Zeller

About the exhibition:

Thirty-nine artworks by twelve artists from Associate Professor, Cat Mazza’s professional practices course have been selected to reflect the diverse approaches to art making in the Art Department at UMass Boston. These student artworks are exemplary in their technical and conceptual application, showing an engaged and varied set of artistic practices. Works on view present themes regarding aesthetics, art historical perspectives, and issues ranging from refugee cultures from around the world, identity politics, and gender dynamics, among others.”

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Amy Beecher: Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful Rose!

When: On view through June 24, 2017

Opening Reception: May 27, 6-9PM, Artist Reading: 7PM

Where: GRIN, 60 Valley St #3, Providence, RI 02909

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “When my niece was born, I gazed at her sweet, angelic face and told my sister that her skin was as soft and beautiful as a beautiful pink rose. My beautiful niece turned 50 this year and I sent her 50 beautiful roses, one for each year of her precious life–a blessing to all who know her. I did not get to see the roses in person, but she told me they came beautifully pack and were wonderfully fresh. I purchased a red rose as well to make a beauty and the beast rose for my wedding. The material of the roses are extremely high quality and are the only fake roses that look real to me! It was exactly what I was looking for as a photo prop. Do NOT get it wet though! My baby drooled on it during photo shoot and the die started to come off. This is by far my favorite rose. Lovely! Realistic!! Life-like!

Amy Beecher: Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful Rose!, an installation of video, text, and sound, opens May 27th. Opening: 6-9PM. Artist’s reading: 7PM.
amybeecher.studio

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Deep in the Dream

When: On view through June 17, 2017

Where: Proof Gallery, 516 East 2nd Street, Boston, MA

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “GJYD, AJ LIBERTO, DAVE OLSEN, MICHAEL ZACHARY

Artists and curators have long utilized mysticism, its symbolism and its theories to create popular art and celebrated exhibitions. Early influencers of Dadaism, including Kandinsky who wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art, were reported to have been deeply influenced by occult principles and rituals their careers. Marcel Duchamp permeated his work with occultist symbolism.

Deep in the Dream considers art influenced by occult traditions and addresses the paradoxical relationship between the material and immaterial worlds. The exhibition concerns the potential for achieving alternate modes of consciousness through art experiences, while considering both art and the exhibition space as transformational tools lending the viewer the ability to abandon consciousness in order to achieve a measure of transcendence. Consisting of work designed to express the idea that one is able to access concealed metaphysical space, the exhibition provides the viewer with the ability to access inner knowledge and unfiltered perception.”

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Catherine Kernan- Perimeters

When: On view through May 27, 2017

Where: Soprafina Gallery, 55 Thayer Street, Boston, MA 02118

How: Official Website

What/Why:“The premise that human relationships with memory and the earth are dynamic,mutable, interactive, and move in ever-evolving cycles of repetition and variationunderlies most of my work. Oppositional spectra of control and serendipity, order andchaos, perception and obstruction, light and dark, pure and tonal guide my choices.I have abandoned the depiction of a particular place, preferring to work in an abstract,improvisatory way, drawing on internalized experiences in a painterly process ofcontrolled accident. Working at the interface between printmaking and painting, usinglarge-scale woodblocks in unorthodox ways as a transfer tool, I build images layer bylayer without predicting the outcome, but always keenly in tune with the medium. Nolonger a purist, interruption and interference with the “perfect transfer” are integral tothe process.”

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Writer’s Block: Poetic Interpretations of the Visual

When: Sunday, May 21 at 1 PM – 3 PM

Where: Fountain Street Fine Art, 460C Harrison Ave, Boston, Massachusetts 02118

How: Official Website

What/Why: “An afternoon of poetic interpretations based on our current exhibition “Scarcely Awake.” This event is in collaboration with Wesborough HS group Writers Block.

Please join us as these AWARD WINNING students take over Fountain Street Gallery!”

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Wood as Muse

When: On view through September 03, 2017

Where: Art Complex Museum, 189 Alden St, Duxbury, MA 02332

How: Official Website

What/Why:“Featuring: Amy Archambault, Thomas Beale, Donna Dodson, Breon Dunigan, Vanessa German, Pat Keck, Jennifer Maestre, Jason Middlebrook, Andy Moerlein, Martin Ulman and Mike Wright.

Wood as Muse features eleven very different sculptors whose connection is wood. With three to eight pieces from each artist this is a deep introduction to the concept and the participants. This selection of artists is diverse in their approaches, yet they are delightfully connected by the artistry and craft of working with this iconic medium. Several of the artists are regionally based and familiar, all of the artists have national and many have international reputations.”

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Gesture

When: On view through July 07, 2017

Where: 13 Forest Gallery, 167A Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02474

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “13FOREST Gallery is pleased to present Gesture, an exhibition featuring the work of Linda Cordner, Jeffrey Fitzgerald, Susan Richards, and Lynda Schlosberg.

Each of the artists in Gesture takes a distinctive approach toward abstracting views of the natural world. In their signature styles they interpret ephemeral or imperceptible elements of nature, offering concrete representations of what is typically more felt than seen.

Manipulating the unique properties of wax, Cordner creates hazy fields of color that give the impression of landscape and sky perceived through the lens of memory. Fitzgerald opts for dynamic brushstrokes that evoke the energy and vitality of the land and sea, while Richards simplifies the form of rocks and minerals to vibrant color and graphic shapes that capture their underlying geometry. Schlosberg’s paintings burst with flowing forms and undulating lines that visualize the waves of electromagnetic energy that fill the space around us.

The works in this exhibition are assembled to demonstrate ways in which abstraction can be used to manifest unique perspectives while still gesturing towards physical reality. “

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Amplify Gallery 263!

When: Saturday, May 20 at 7:30 PM – 11 PM

Where: velir, 212 Elm St, Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

How: Official Website 

What/Why:“Help us turn it up to eleven as we throw our biggest party ever! Gallery 263 is coming to Somerville for one night only, with art, music, dancing, craft cocktails, and foraged gastronomic delights.

Get your tickets today!

-Experience original works by local artists, and bring one home in our first ever art draw.
-Enjoy foraged appetizers from acclaimed New York chef Paul Lang.
-Take a chance at winning experiences like a private home concert or an art workshop for you and your friends.
-Sip a cocktail while grooving out to the smooth sounds of the Mike Caudill Trio.”

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The Augmented Landscape

When: Saturday, May 27 at 6 PM – 8 PM

Where: Salem Maritime National Historic Site, 160 Derby St, Salem, Massachusetts 01970

How: Official Website

What/Why: “Boston Cyberarts has commissioned five artists-John Craig Freeman, Kristin Lucas, Will Pappenheimer, Mark Skwarek, and Tamiko Thiel-to create 10 augmented reality (AR) sculptures for The Augmented Landscape, an outdoor exhibition to take place at the National Park Service’s Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Located on the historic waterfront in Salem, MA, the free exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, May 27, and remain on view through November 30, 2017. “

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Master’s Thesis Exhibition

When: On view May 16 – 21

Opening Reception: May 19, 7:30 – 10 p.m.

Where: The Cyclorama at Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston

How: Official Website

What/Why: “The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University celebrates the work of graduating Master of Fine Arts students with an exhibition in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts. 39 SMFA Master of Fine Arts students will showcase their thesis projects in film, video, painting, performance, sculpture, photography, installation, drawing, and more. “

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Anne Lilly: To See

When: On view May 20 through June 17, 2017

Opening Reception: May 20, 6-10PM

Where: VERY, 59 Wareham Street, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: Learn more about the exhibition here!

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Year End Show

When: On view through May 22, 2017

Where: Grossman Gallery, Anderson Auditorium, Weems Atrium, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University campus, 230 Fenway, Boston

How: Official Website

What/Why: “This exhibition showcases students graduating in the class of 2017 as well as winners of awards, fellowships, and prizes from the 2016-2017 academic year.”

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Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed, and Style

When: On view May 20, 2017 to October 9, 2017

Where: Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square (161 Essex St) Salem, Massachusetts 01970

How: Official Website 

What/Why: “From the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century, ocean liners were floating showcases of technology, opulence and social sophistication. As icons of modernity and aspirational living, artists, engineers, architects and passengers all vied for influence and access in the creation and enjoyment of these man-made islands at sea.Ocean liners were intricately constructed pieces of culture — in the appearance of their design, the elegance of their engineering and the division of their social space — and each with its own distinct personality. Drawing from international institutions and private collections, the exhibition brings together nearly 200 works including paintings, sculpture, models, furniture, lighting, wall panels, textiles, fashion, photographs, posters and film. The exhibition is co-organized with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.”

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Building 6 Grand Opening!

When: Opens May 28, 2017

Where: MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247

How: Official Website

What/Why: “We’re doubling in size beginning May 28, with an all-day celebration to mark the monumental expansion, featuring a members’ preview, a Soundsuit parade, and a concert with veteran rockers CAKE.

MASS MoCA launches into the summer season with the opening of Building 6, the third phase of campus development that encompasses 130,000 square feet of interior renovations to the museum’s 19th-century mill buildings, and features work from artists Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois, James Turrell, Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson, and Gunnar Schonbeck (Bang on a Can). Additional artists to be shown in Building 6 include Spencer Finch, Dawn DeDeaux, Lonnie Holley, Mary Lum, Barbara Ernst Prey, Janice Kerbel, Joe Wardwell, Sarah Crowner, Richard Nonas, and the Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio.

Opening Day schedule
All day DJ
Most of the day Food trucks!
10am Members’ preview: Become a member to see it first
11am Main galleries open (except Building 6)
12pm Building 6 opens with welcoming remarks
3pm Nick Cave’s Soundsuit parade, choreographed by Williams College professor Sandra Burton
6pm Brooklyn United Marching Band
8pm CAKE in concert on Joe’s Field”

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