the materiality of mourning x complexities & contradictions x a place to process
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Fertile Solitude + Election Reflections // A Place to Process
When: November 12, 2016, 5-9PM
Where: Boston Center for the Arts at the Mills Gallery, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Friends, in the spirit of unity and togetherness, to share the many emotions we’re feeling in the wake of this week’s election, the Mills Gallery offers its space as a site for quiet reflection and gathering, a place where you can drop-in and process feelings and share thoughts. It may seem incongruous, but we think our current exhibition “Fertile Solitude” creates an environment where healing and solidarity have a chance to take root. Come for some time to think, to hold space for light and hope. Particularly good vibes being offered this Thursday evening Nov 10 and again on Saturday evening Nov 12, from 5-9pm. No event, just some space and art and someone to talk to.”
Learn more about Fertile Solitude here.
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The Materiality of Mourning
When: On view November 4th through April 9th, 2017
Where: Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street , Cambridge, MA 02138
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning brings together a deeply evocative constellation of recent works by Doris Salcedo (Colombian, b. 1958), the renowned Bogotá-based artist known for her sculptures and public installations that respond to the testimonies of survivors and victims of political violence. Evoking themes such as the lasting grief of war, Salcedo’s works honor, acknowledge, and mourn those lost to oppression and political violence in Colombia and beyond. The pieces also address 20th-century preoccupation with materiality and the object; however, Salcedo’s artistic process is distinctive in the way it fuses painstaking research with works fastidiously made by hand.
The Materiality of Mourning features four separate installations, with a number of Salcedo’s works created between 2001 and today. These include the Harvard Art Museums’ recent acquisition, A Flor de Piel (2013), which will be shown publicly for the first time in this exhibition. A room-size tapestry comprised of thousands of preserved hand-sewn red rose petals, the work is intended as a shroud for a nurse who was tortured to death in the Colombian war.
Additional objects on view include a selection of Salcedo’s seminal sculptures, on loan from private and public collections as well as from the artist herself. Several works incorporate domestic furniture in unsettling configurations. Thou-less (2001–02), for instance, is comprised of carved, stainless steel chairs that are at once familiar and strange. Other works highlight how Salcedo has recently pushed her commitment to materiality and its expressive possibilities to new extremes. These include four works from the Disremembered series, individual ephemeral blouse-like sculptures that are constructed of handwoven silk threads filled with tiny needles. Each Disremembered sculpture provides a spectral contrast to Salcedo’s dense physically imposing works, such as the two Untitled furniture pieces (2008) made of wood, metal, and concrete—with a combined weight of over 1,800 pounds—that will also be shown in the exhibition.”
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Dor Guez, (Sa)Mira
When: On view through December 10, 2016
Where: Rosebud, 683 Main Street, Waltham, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “(Sa)mira is one video from a series that focuses on three generations of Dor Guez’s extended family and their identity as a Christian Arab family from Lod. Here, he interviews his cousin, Samira, a first-year psychology student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem named after her grandmother. Throughout her monologue, Samira shifts seamlessly between her native Arabic and fluent Hebrew, an indication of her layered and co-existent cultural identifications. Guez’s interview uncovers complex tensions that exist within Israeli society, rooted in religious, ethnic, national, and lingual identity, and as the video progresses, Samira begins to articulate how racism impacts her life. In this work and others, Guez reveals the schism between self-identification and the way one is identified by outsiders.”
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Fall Open Studios
When: November 12-13, 2016
Where: Mother Brook Arts and Community Center, 123 High Street, Dedham, MA 02026
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Mother Brook Arts & Community Center’s Fall Open Studios is a juried event showcasing works of artists from around the New England region. Our center is located in Dedham, MA, ideally situated in metropolitan Boston, drawing visitors from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Our patrons, resident artists and visiting artists look forward to our show each year, as it is always filled with great energy, great people and great art.”
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SNAC Opening Reception
When: On view through November 30, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday November 12, 2016 7-9PM
Where: Hunakai Studio of Fine Arts, 263 Central Street, Foxborough, MA 02035
How: Official Website
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Unearthing
When: On view through December 2, 2016
Opening Reception: November 17, 5:30-7:30P
Where: FPAC Gallery, 300 Summer Street, Boston, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why:“The Fort Point Arts Community Gallery is pleased to announce unearthing, the second show of the 2016-2017 season, juried by Jeffrey De Blois of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.
Using different media to communicate in vivid color, Page Pearson Railsback and Barbara Leiner inspire a complimentary, exciting environment. Their different styles and sensitivities create an interactive relationship that opens the door to viewer involvement.
Both artists received juried residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. They met there two years ago and were inspired by each other’s commitment to painting and love of color. Leiner paints large, luscious abstract shapes, using oil sticks. Railsback uses acrylic in a representational style as well as abstract, building up her painting with layers of small shapes that eventually soften to geographic-like landscapes.”
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Jennifer Schmidt: Palmed the Thumb
When: On view November 12 – December 24 , 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 12 from 6-8pm
Where: Proof Gallery, 516 E. 2nd Street, South Boston, MA 02127
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Proof Gallery is pleased to present Palmed the Thumb, new work by artist Jennifer Schmidt. The title of the exhibition is an excerpt from a poem written by the artist, in response to a poem by concrete poet Augusto de Campos and Decio Pignatari. The poem is featured as a series of screenprinted posters, which serve as a referent for thinking about the other objects in the exhibition.
The works in the exhibition play with the relationship of things to their own making, and the making of meaning based on the relationship of things to other things in a similar category or grouping. Each thing straddles the physicality of its existence, and the visual and written attributes that give reference for its belonging. In this way, mathematical and visual word problems of what this is to this, and that is to that, set the tone for how each work can be experienced. Characteristics of measurement, materials, and processes become language games for further understanding and explaining. Each print and object in the exhibition is a multiple that is made from a known thing or process.
Jennifer Schmidt is a multi-media artist living in Brooklyn, NY, who works with print media, graphic design, and sound to create site-specific installations, video, and performances that question the role of visual iconography and repetitive actions within a given environment.
She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Delaware; and is Chair of the Print and Graphic Arts Department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA.”
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Constructed Video
When: On view November 12 to December 18th
Opening Reception: Friday November 11, 6pm to 8pm
Where: Boston Cyberarts Gallery, 141 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Boston Cyberarts is pleased to present an exhibition of three artists who use video as a reflective process, examining more closely distinct corners of the world. The video art of the present has become a few minutes, even seconds, of a YouTube burst of story telling sensation. These three artists are all going in the opposite direction, constructing sculptural space using multiple screens coupled with powerful imagery; devoid of story telling. Working with image and audio as sculptural elements, they construct a new model for the moving image.
Georgie Friedman’s videos, Water Study: Sekonyer River, Kalimantan, Indonesia, No. 1 & No. 2, re-frame natural elements by concentrating on the movement, light, color, and reflections in the water. She draws attention to the meditative properties inherent in the natural world. The videos skirt the literal, and become smooth, flowing visual abstractions. Filmed on the Sekonyer River in Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo), the Southern Hemisphere water swirls and circles in a mesmerizingly elegant manner. The two videos will run simultaneously, being projected as a two-channel piece on to the front wall of the gallery.
Robin Mandel’s Siren explores a paradox of motion and stillness by capturing the gesture of song. Using specialized devices that spin the projectors, three video clips of a vocalist play simultaneously on three custom screens. The clips cycle in and out of phase, forming contrasting combinations of notes: harmonies and disharmonies, solos, duets, and trios. Each sung note coincides with a period of stability in the spinning video. There are rare moments when all three voices are singing, all three video images are momentarily stable, and everything aligns for at most one breath’s duration. These moments build, dissolve, and reform again in new combinations.
Andrew Neumann’s ongoing project, Craneology(x6), is presented here as a six screen version. Capturing images via time -lapse video for the past five years out of one specific window, the piece documents the development of a specific neighborhood from a single point of view. Shooting from his window, Neumann explains, “Although the camera may be on all day long, it’s only capturing a very condensed piece of time, as it’s shooting a single frame at a pre determined interval. Time is condensed, weather patterns become clouds dances. On multiple screens, some vertical and some horizontal, the cranes become prehistoric creatures lifting steel into the air.”
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The Artist’s Museum
When: On view November 16th through March 26, 2017
Where: ICA Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA 02210
How: Official Website
What/Why: “The desire to collect objects and images of personal significance, and to make connections between them, is a nearly universal human experience. For centuries, artists have collected artworks, along with diverse cultural artifacts and natural materials, as vital sources of inspiration and to create highly individualized models of their world. The Artist’s Museum begins with this impulse to collect and connect, bringing together large-scale installations, photography, film, and videos that employ artworks from the past as material in the present, animating existing artworks, images, and histories to reveal art’s unexpected relationships and affinities. Each of the artists in The Artist’s Museum reimagines the lives of artworks and charts recurring forms and themes across cultures and history. They tweak the language of museum display and organization to engage a variety of disciplines and subjects, from dance, music, and design to gender, sexuality, and technology.”
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Jessica Deane Rosner | Stitching Mona + Manuscript: Word Drawings
When: On view through December 3 2016
Where: Yellow Peril Gallery, 60 Valley St, Providence, RI 02909
How: Official Website
What/Why: “PROVIDENCE, RI – Yellow Peril Gallery is pleased to present Stitching Mona and Manuscript:Word Drawings, two distinct exhibits by Jessica Deane Rosner, featuring an “intensely personal” installation about her mother’s state of mind and 13 narrative drawings about an unexpected crisis. The opening reception is Saturday, October 1, from 6PM – 9PM.
Stitching Mona is an homage to Jessica Deane Rosner’s mother, Mona Lenore Rosner (née: Udell). The ambitious installation – three years in the making – is the artist putting her mother’s words, sketches, crafts, dreams and thoughts, out into the world. “The installation will reveal the complexities and contradictions within her personality to exist side by side with a little help from me,” notes Rosner. “It will show some of the many sides of the person my mother used to be, before dementia took hold of her brain.”
In the rear gallery space, Manuscript:Word Drawings will illustrate the story and events that have altered Rosner’s life as they unfolded in real-time. “The drawings are a narrative version that allowed me to express what I felt during that time. The final three drawings are the entire story written in code that also appears in some of the other drawings,” she explains. “The exhibit opens just a little over one year after what happened, happened.”
According to Rosner, both parts of this exhibition are “intensely personal,” as is all of her work. “But the personal is universal as it represents daily thoughts and struggles we all have when dealing with issues ranging from family feuds to unrealized hopes and dreams to unexpected blows that arise in nearly every life,” she underscores. “We are all in this together.”
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Anni Albers: Connections
When: On view through December 18, 2016
Where: Davis Museum, Wellesley College, 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
How: Official Website
What/Why: “In 1984, textile designer and printmaker Anni Albers published Connections—a set of nine silkscreens that evoke pivotal moments in her prolific career, by then spanning nearly six decades. Reflecting on her life as a designer, she chose motifs for the prints based on her work from particular years: two from the 1920s, when Albers was at the Bauhaus and met her life-long partner and later husband Josef; two from the 1940s, when the couple taught at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina after having fled Nazi Germany; three from the late 1950s to the early ‘70s, after they resettled in Orange, Connecticut and Josef served as Yale University’s Chair of the Department of Design; and two from the early 1980s, after Josef’s death. This exhibition pairs the Davis Museum’s exquisite example of this silkscreen portfolio—an acquisition made in the past year—with Albers’ work from each era, tracing the development of her patterns from sketches on graph paper to gouache maquettes. Preparatory works on paper are paired with fabric swatches and remnants manufactured by commercial textile producers, such as Knoll where her designs can be purchased to this day.”
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Lisa Knox Gallery Night
When: Tuesday, November 15 at 6 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles Street, Boston, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “A pop-up art show set within the Liberty Hotel. The artwork in this exhibit was inspired by the ceaseless movement and rhythms of the sea. Color, line, pattern and text are combined to evoke a sense of inner peace and contemplation.”
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Artist Talk: Sarah Sze
When: Thursday November 17, 6:30 PM
Where: Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Carl and Ruth Shapiro Admissions Center, Presentation Room, 415 South St, Waltham, MA 02453
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Blurring the boundaries between sculpture, installation and painting, Sarah Sze builds intricate landscapes from the ordinary minutiae of everyday life, yet on a grand architectural scale. The artist will discuss her practice, as well as her site-specific installations at the Rose Art Museum. Museum hours will be extended until 6:30 PM to allow visitors to view the work before her talk at the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Admissions Center.”
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RACE, LOVE, AND LABOR
A traveling exhibition from the Center for Photography at Woodstock
When: November 18, 2016 −January 28, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 17, 5:30-8pm
Where: PRC Gallery, 832 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
How: Official Website
What/Why: “The PRC is honored to present this traveling exhibition of work from the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s acclaimed Artist-in-Residency program (www.cpw.org/create/artist-res
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Alex Webb: La Calle
When: On view through Friday, December 23rd, 2016
Where: Robert Klein Gallery, 38 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02116
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Robert Klein Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of photographs by celebrated color photographer, ALEX WEBB. Held in conjunction with the artist’s latest Aperture publication, La Calle, this exhibition will feature works culled from over 30 years of the artist’s work in Mexico.
Join us for an opening reception on Thursday, November 3rd, from 6 to 8pm at our Newbury Street Gallery. Copies of La Calle will be available to purchase, and the artist will be present. Light refreshments will also be served.
This exhibition runs from Thursday, November 3, until Friday, December 23. The artist’s work will also be featured at this year’s edition of PARIS PHOTO in Robert Klein Gallery’s booth, #D3.”
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KAHBAHBLOOOM: The Art and Storytelling of Ed Emberley
When: On view November 16, 2016 – April 9, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 17, 5-8pm
Where: Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Opening this fall at the Worcester Art Museum, KAHBAHBLOOOM: The Art and Storytelling of Ed Emberley is the first comprehensive retrospective for artist Ed Emberley, among the most prolific and respected illustrators of children’s literature of the last 60 years. The author of classic books such as the Caldecott Honored One Wide River To Cross (1965), the Caldecott Medal-winning Drummer Hoff (1967), and the bestselling Go Away, Big Green Monster (1992), Emberley also developed one of the bestselling series of teaching books for young artists, beginning with Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals (1970).
The exhibition draws on the Massachusetts-based artist’s personal archive of original hand-drawn sketches, woodblock prints, final proofs, and first edition books to survey his career and examine his influence on generations of readers and nascent artists. KAHBAHBLOOOM will include interactive areas throughout the exhibition, including a stylized reproduction of the artist’s drawing and light table from his home studio—where visitors of all ages can try their hand at his techniques—and a specially designed reading area.
KAHBAHBLOOOM is being curated by artist, writer, and historian Caleb Neelon, in partnership with the Museum’s Audience Engagement Division.”
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Fenway Open Studios
When: November 12 + 13, 2016 11:00AM to 5:00PM
Where: Fenway Artist Studios, 30 Ipswich Street, Boston, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “This event provides a rare opportunity to meet and talk with artists as well as to see the inside of this National Historic Landmark. This is the oldest purpose built structure in the country designed soley as artist studios.
During open studios, a raffle is held and funds raised are used to promote the building and restoration efforts.”
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Well, this week happened. Think we’re all a bit fried to say the least.
I considered not posting a wrap-up today, but then I remembered that despite macro-level messiness, there are still #bosarts artists whose efforts deserve love and support this week.
And now is not the time for me to go and break a promise:
Be kind to those you encounter. Keep your head up. ♥
