adventures close to home x processes and dreams x pictures tell the story
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Ladies of the House
(Lady Strachan, Sir Thomas Lawrence)
When: On view through May 2012
Where: Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street, Worcester, Massachusetts 01609
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Lady, n. 1. The female head of a household; a woman who has authority over servants, attendants, or slaves (now chiefly arch. or hist.).
2. A woman who rules over subjects, a queen; a woman to whom obedience or feudal homage is due.
3. A woman who is the object of (esp. chivalrous) love or devotion…now chiefly hist. or poet.
–Oxford English Dictionary
From its beginnings to heyday to decline, the portrait miniature lent itself to representations of women. Although the standards of female fashions, appearances, and expectations changed over time, the miniature’s small, intimate format and painstaking artistic techniques ensured that it remained a desirable way to capture the likenesses of the women who mattered in the lives and hearts of patrons. This exhibition celebrates a gallery of women, from Britain and America, from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, who may have been represented “in little,” but whose appearances continue to loom large.”
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Histories of Now: Six Artists from Cairo
(Stammer-A lecture in Theory(still), Shady El Noshokaty)
When: On view January 18th-March 17th, 2012
Where: School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 230 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Egypt’s political and social revolution was one of the biggest stories of 2011; Egypt’s future remains uncertain as events continue to unfold daily. Coinciding with the revolution’s one-year anniversary (in January), Boston audiences can experience “Histories of Now: Six Artists from Cairo,” which brings together some of the most inspiring and influential video/new media artists working in Egypt today at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), January 18–March 17, 2012.
Together these artists—Mohamed Abla, Ahmed Basiony, Hala Elkoussy, Shady El Noshokaty, Sabah Naim and Moataz Nasr—offer visitors highly visual and insightful views of their evolving nation at a critical juncture in its history. Particularly powerful is the multi-channel video installation by the late Basiony featured in the Egyptian Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennale.”
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FOTC Snow Picnic
When: Friday January 13th, 8:00PM-1:00AM
Where: The Western Front, 343 Western Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Boston’s choice courier Fly Over the City organizes another amazing art show! FOTC SNOW PICNIC! Featuring Art by Nick McEvoy, Jen Kanis, Jen O’Brien, Tofusquirrel, Coco Roy-Rodgers, Jeff Poot, Rachel Rizzo, Greg Letarte, Amanda Clarke, Carolyn Lewenberg, Ellie Gill, Brian Connolly and more. Featuring noise by Subclinix, Double Nines, Skimask, The Western Front”
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Fresh Fiber Revisited
(December, Olivia Frassinelli)
When: On view through April 22nd, 2012
Where: Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak Street, Brockton, MA 02301
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Fresh Fiber Revisited: Work by Emerging Textile Artists from RISD, UMass-Dartmouth, and MassART brings back together fiber and textile design programs from three prominent universities, allowing visitors to experience the wide range of possibilities within the field of fiber art.”
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Shame/Less
(Watery Sunset, Thailand 01.02.09, prior work of Kate True)
When: On view through March 2nd, 2012
Opening Reception: January 19th, 2012 6-9PPM
Where: FPAC Gallery, 300 Summer Street, Boston MA 02210
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Featuring the work of Daniel Davidson, Tory Fair, Pam Hart, Katie Koti, Steve Locke, Rosemarie Padovano, Kate True”
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Processes and Dreams
(Untitled, prior work of Jennifer Hudson)
When: On view through February 28th, 2012
Opening Reception: January 13th, 5:30-7:30PM
Where: Panopticon Gallery, 502c Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
How: Official Website
What/Why:“Dreams are the fogged glow of the subconscious. They can be shard memories, blurred scenes of fragmented life experiences. Personal and shared stories intersect and merge. The line between the truth and fictitiousness is ambiguous. In this illusory installation, the rational and the fanciful unite.
Panopticon Gallery is proud to present Processes and Dreams, a group exhibition that blends together photographs that are ethereal in nature. The images are a culmination of their maker’s imaginations, collective, childhood and universal memories, metaphors, artifacts, rituals and personal experiences. Look closely because people and things are not always as they seem.”
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Mans and Other
When: On view through March 11th, 2012
Where: Albright Art Gallery, Downstairs at 32 Main Street, Concord, MA 01742
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Albright Art Gallery brings contemporary art to historic Concord, MA. The galleries exhibit art primarily by regional artists.”
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Pictures Tell the Story – Ernest C. Withers
When: On view through March 1st, 2012
Where: Griffin Museum of Photography, 67 Shore Road, Winchester MA 01890
How: Official Website
What/Why:“Ernest C. Withers’ photographs document and interpret the social history of the African American experience from the late 1940s through the 1970s.
He explores the rise and victory of the civil rights movement, the rigid segregation that pervaded sports such as baseball, and the emergence of widespread popular music in the form of rock ‘n’ roll.
An exhibit of his work,Pictures Tell the Story, is featured in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum January 5 through March 1. An opening reception is January 12, 7-8:30 p.m. The work is presented courtesy of Decaneas Archive, Revere, MA.
Withers’s civil rights photographs are his most important body of work. In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was at the heart of the movement, and Withers, an African American, not only documented the struggle, but worked actively to propel the movement forward.
He photographed Martin Luther King Jr. many times. And, after King’s assassination in Memphis, he went to extremes to document everything related to the event. The images symbolize the sense of loss Withers, and many others, were feeling after King’s death.”
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Adventures Close to Home
When: On view through January 30th, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday January 13th, 2012, 7-10PM
Where: Washington Street Art Center, 321 Washington Street, Somerville, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Adventures Close to Home is an exhibition and auction being presented by Boston Lady Fest and the Snow Project at Washington Street Art Center in Somerville, MA during the month of January, 2012. It serves to showcase the work of a wide community of local feminist artists who have donated their work to Ladyfest Boston. It is part of a series of benefits being held to raise money for the room cost and cover other expenses for the Fest.
We will have Ladyfest committee and guest DJs, snacks, beer, and a lot of fun! During the month of January alongside the exhibition and auction Ladyfest and the Snow Project are also presenting two benefit events being held at Washington Street Art Center.”
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Open Windows
When: On view January 14th through April 8th, 2012
Where: Philips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Guest-curated by artist Carroll Dunham, this exhibition presents the work of four contemporary American painters: Keltie Ferris, Jackie Saccoccio, Billy Sullivan, and Alexi Worth. Representing distinct and varied approaches to painting from abstraction to realism, these artists’ works will be set in counterpoint to modernist paintings chosen by Dunham from the Addison’s permanent collection. By juxtaposing new and recent paintings by the four artists with historic works ranging in date from the 1930s to early 1960s by artists such as Franz Kline, Irene Rice Pereira, John Graham, and Reginald Marsh, to name a few,Open Windows reveals sometimes surprising affinities, influences, and contrasts among and between the twenty-first-century works and mid-twentieth-century paintings, opening windows on new possibilities and fresh ways of seeing.”
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Illuminations
(Pneumatics, Stefanie Pender)
When: On view through February 2nd, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday January 13th, 5-7PM
Where: Chazan Gallery, 228 Angell Street, Providence, RI 02906
How: Official Website
What/Why:“The Chazan Gallery is presenting Illuminations, an exhibition of works by Paul Myoda and Stefanie Pender from January 13 to February 2, 2012. There will be an opening reception for the artists on Friday January 13, from 5 – 7 p.m. The public is invited.
Since 2008, Paul Myoda has been developing ‘Glittering Machines’, complex mechanical sculptures which react to external stimuli. The machines are developed modularly, allowing for a variety of combinations; the scale of the machines can be adapted to suit their environment. Using sensors, motors, gears, microprocessors, LED’s, and lenses, Myoda constructs pieces which are at once kinetic, sonic and illuminating. Myoda designs the mechanical elements using engineering software such as Rhino, Adobe Illustrator and Cinema 4D; the pieces are then fabricated from metal and plastic. Myoda’s sculptures respond to the movements and proximity of the viewing subjects. Mimicking the behavior of bioluminescent creatures, “these behaviors range from attraction to repulsion, camouflage to revelation, predictability to spontaneity.”
Stefanie Pender’s most recent glass pieces reflect her continued devotion to craft, technique and tradition. In Illuminations she presents works that draw from historic traditions of manipulating light “to transform and transport.” Pender’s varied sources are united by a common material: red and blue glass. These particular colors were once thought to have profound physiological and psychological influences on the body. Pender explores diverse sources, such as medieval stained glass windows and instruments of 19th Century “Chromo-therapists”, to create her own sculpture of color and light.”
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Of Gods and Mortals, Traditional Art from India
(Syamakantha Fighting a Tiger (detail), 19th century, Calcutta)
When: On view through March 1st, 2012
Where: Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970
How: Official Website
What/Why: “In India, art is an integral part of daily life. The importance of paintings, sculpture, textiles and other art forms comprises two basic categories, one related to religious practices and the other to the expression of prestige and social position. This new installation of works from the Peabody Essex Museum’s collection of Indian art will feature approximately 28 pieces, principally representing the 1800’s to the present.”
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♂/☺/♫
I know its Friday the 13th, but don’t be scurred. Embrace this freakish weather and get out of the house. Doctor’s orders. ♥
