lest we forget x dark garden x midnight to boom x within these walls
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Freeport: [No. 006] Nick Cave
(Soundsuit, Nick Cave)
When: On view March 2nd through May 27th, 2013
Where: Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St, Salem, MA 01970
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Fashion designer and dancer, Nick Cave, is world renowned for his category-bending Soundsuits. Equal parts sculpture, costume, and performance, Cave’s life-size creations take on a larger-than-life dimension. Constructed from a colorful bricolage of materials including twigs, sisal, beads, sequins and feathers, Cave’s Soundsuits are faceless and other-worldly, obscuring the wearer’s identity, gender and class. For the installation at PEM, three never-before-seen Soundsuits will make their debut along with an immersive film projection. “
Also on view..
Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India After the Independence
(Durga, 1985, Bikash Bhattacharjee)
When: On view through April 21st, 2013
How: Official Website
What/Why: “The political freedoms gained from Britain at midnight on August 15, 1947, inspired a revolutionary art movement that continued through the economic boom of the 1990s. Unrestricted by cultural expectations, three generations of Indian artists fully engaged with the world around them, embracing their individualistic approaches to modern art. “
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Tenfold
(The work of Kushala Vora)
When: On view through March 15th, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday March 1st, 2013 5-8pm
Where: OGO Gallery, 405 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Tenfold is an exhibition of artists who have been working and conversingin a studio space for a year. As a result of this dialogue, there are overlapping conversations surrounding painting. Each artist is involved in a distinct investigation, the outcomes of which are visually, materially and conceptually diverse.
Artists included are Alex Buchanan, Klementina Budnik, Abbey Campbell, Spencer Hinson, Grace Jackson, Stephanie Mills, Danielle Norris,
Pawel Przewlocki, Kushala Vora, Sena Wataya.”
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Dark Garden – An Installation by Linda Huey
When: On view through April 28th, 2013
Opening Reception: Sunday March 3rd, 2013 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Where: Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak Street, Brockton, MA 02301
How: Official Website
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Richard Kattman – Painted Abstracts
When: On view through March 24th, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday March 2nd, 2013 5-7PM
Where: Fountain Street Fine Art, 59 Fountain Street, Framingham, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “An artist-run membership based gallery, Fountain Street Fine Art exhibits contemporary work by emerging and mid-career artists that is skillfully executed, exciting and new, with a strong regional focus. Solo shows by member artists alternate with collaborative projects, installations and group shows. In addition, we see ourselves as a resource for the artists of Fountain Street Studios and the region, and periodically host gallery talks, workshops and film screenings of interest to artists and collectors.”
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Performance Art from Further West
When: Saturday March 2nd, 2013 7PM
Where: mobius, 55 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Kristina Lenzi is a performance artist and painter living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lenzi often grapples with difficult sociopolitical issues such as war, mental illness, feminist issues and the economy. She enjoys using humor, personae and abstraction as a way to balance the seriousness of her topics and as a way to keep her work concise.”
Also on view..
V E R B I - V O C O - V I S U A L
When: Sunday, March 3 – Friday, March 8
Opening Reception: Sunday March 3rd, 4PM
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Concrete poetry and derivations, 1972-2013. Larry Johnson, Sarah Rushford, Jed Speare, Douglas Urbank”
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Illuminated Geographies: Pakistani Miniaturist Practice in the Wake of the Global Turn
(God’s best, Faisa Butt)
When: On view through March 31st, 2013
Where: Tisch Gallery, Tufts University, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Illuminated Geographies explores how contemporary miniaturist painting is evolving from its roots in Mughal painting, as it is brought into different contexts and its stylistic foundation is adapted through different artistic visions. The practice of Mughal miniature painting originated during the 16th century in the Mughal Empire, spanning what is now India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. As this Muslim empire fell into decline, so did its art form, marked by a meticulous attention to minute detail, lush jewel tones, epic subject matter, and diminutive scale. Today we are experiencing a renaissance in this mode of artistic expression, due, in large part, to the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan (NCA), which since the 1980s has taught this traditional practice of wasli paper- and brush-making techniques, paint mixing, narrative style, and iconography. Two generations of artists have now studied at the NCA and have reinvigorated this practice as a relevant, globalized contemporary art form by infusing it with their individual visions and contemporary subject matter.
The exhibition focuses on four artists trained at the NCA now living outside of Pakistan each of whom are pushing the boundaries of miniaturist practice in different directions. These artists –Ambreen Butt, Faiza Butt, Murad Khan Mumtaz, and Saira Wasim — all deal with themes of cultural amalgamation in their work. Influenced by their current location and distance from Pakistan, they address political, social and cultural realities of Pakistan and their present environments. The works in this exhibition are eloquent illustrations of hybridity—of language, place, and time. They draw parallels between divergent traditions and allow for different perspectives to occupy a single space. Despite a shared origin in Pakistan, the subject of Illuminated Geographies is both translocal and transcultural in nature—reaching across national boundaries and beyond Islamic traditions.”
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Lost Horizons – Barbara Grad
When: On view through March 12th, 2013
Where: Howard Yezerski Gallery, 450 Harrison, MA, 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Howard Yezerski Gallery is pleased to present Lost Horizons, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Barbara Grad. In this latest series Grad shoves towards a new abstraction, pushing the boundary of representation until it teeters on the edge of instability.
Grad sees herself as a part of a movement of artists rejecting image and instead accessing space through paint and color. She takes cues from artists like Sigmar Polke who take resources from everywhere, creating a discourse between the materials and the images. She thinks about David Park’s sense of light traveling through the paint, applying those lessons to her treatment of space and color.
Grad fills her paintings with the contradictions of contemporary human experience. She searches for geometries that match the volatility that she senses beneath her feet. She uses mapping as a visual language to fuse divergent regions. What emerges is a divergent aesthetic based on intuitive yet labyrinthine treatment of imaginary space. Geometries oppose organic line; atmosphere bleeds into the concrete.
The shapes of color tip into one another. The paintings spin you around within them, disorienting. The stripes trick your eye into looking for pattern. The ground beneath the green is unstable, pulled out beneath the space of the painting. Go deeper. You move further, but cannot find a place to rest. The abstractions confront, disorient, and engage.”
Also on view..
Black Indians in Space – James Montford
What/Why: “”With a telescopic view of racism, Montford decontextualizes vernacular stereotypes to create his own “cosmos” or metaphysical world order. The celestial sphere in Black Indians in Space is guided by the ontology of prejudice, racial objectification and deep-rooted allegories of the Other. “Heavenly” bodies and constellations formed out of collaged derogatory images gravitate within painted, starry night skies. These oppressive archetypes form an expansive microcosm of identity politics, challenging the universe that envelops us all.”
– Christine Licata, Associate Director of Visual Arts, Boston Center for the Arts and Independent Curator”
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Carol McMahon: Home Front
When: On view through March 30th, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday March 1st, 2013 6-8:30PM
Where: Bromfield Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “In her new work, McMahon is playing with toys such as doll houses, stuffed animals, blocks, a doll carriage.
Plus, expect to see some other domestic objects: tables, cupboards, shelves and maybe even a hat tree reused as materials for sculptures, paintings and assemblages.
This work is about exploring ideas and feelings regarding the house, home and family.”
Kathleen Volp: Within These Walls
What/Why: “In Volp’s new show, ”Within These Walls,” the artist explores the idea of what constitutes a home. Combining photo transfers from family snapshots with home improvement and crafting materials, such as flocking, faux fruit and wood paneling,
Volp creates evocative assemblages and paintings that reflect the often messy rooms that shape personal identity.”
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Rose Olson: Light Moves
(Sky Catcherm Rose Olson)
When: On view through March 30, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, March 1, 5:00-7:30 pm
Where: Kingston Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
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Sandra Allen-Trunks
When: On view through April 13th, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday March 1st, 2013 – 5:30 – 7:30
Where: Carroll and Sons, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
Also on view..
Wendy Richmond — Rocks TVs
When: On view through April 27th, 2013
Reception: Friday March 1, 2013, 5:30 – 7:30
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Guillermo Srodek-Hart Interiors
(Colonna Carpentry Shop)
When: On view through March 30th, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday March 1st from 5:30 – 8:30
Where: Gallery Kayafas, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
Also on view..
Lynn Saville -Vacancy
(Lighted Windows, NY)
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Brand Dead
(Jack W Schneider – P&G/LOGO2)
When: On view through March 31st, 2013
Opening Reception: Wednesday March 6th, 6-9pm
Where: The Hallway Gallery, 66a South Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Brand Dead is a collection of works by nine artists commissioned to re-interpret contemporary logos and familiar ad campaigns. The resulting works that make up the exhibition range from the satirical playfulness of Wacky Packages and MAD Magazine advertisements, to more somber critiques of some of America’s most iconic companies such as, Budweiser, Pep Boys, Procter & Gamble, and Kelloggs.Participating artists include: Brian Butler – Peat Duggins – Pat Falco – Raspado Friaz-Ryan Hennessee – Rhonda Ratray – Jack W Schneider-Karl Stevens – Todd White”
New Woodcut Monoprints by Catherine Kernan
(Afterimage 1)
When: On view through March 30th, 2013
Where: Soprafina Gallery, 55 Thayer Street, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “A series of woodcut monoprints about memory reconstruction and visual perception, these works are large in scale and rich with complex overlays. Working at the interface between printmaking and painting, Kernan uses woodblocks in unorthodox ways to build images layer by layer in a painterly process of controlled accident.Catherine Kernan is a painter and printmaker. She is co-owner, co-founder, and director of Mixit Print Studio, a professional open rental printmaking studio in Somerville, Massachusetts. Kernan is also Director of Maud Morgan Arts, an art center in Cambridge. “Working at the interface between printmaking and painting, I use woodblocks in unorthodox ways to build images layer by layer in a painterly process of controlled accident. The block acts as an intermediary to counteract any preciousness of the hand stroke and the process of transferring from a matrix yields repetition and variation. No longer a purist, I exploit any available tool or means to transfer color and form to surface. Sometimes I print from one block to another before transferring to paper. Or I use a block to lift ink from a plastic plate. I also use the blocks to lay down a layer of ink on plastic over which I roll a viscous ink that will be rejected in unpredictable ways. In general, I exploit any way I can to interfere with the “perfect” transfer from block to paper.”
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Free Art Friday #FAFBoston
Love this idea. Original pieces of art. Hidden across the city. On the First Friday of the month. Follow @Beezman01 on Twitter and check #FAFBOS on Friday(today!) to learn more about their whereabouts.
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Winter Public Art: Artists’ Walk & Talk
(Listener, Karen Stein Shanley)
When: Thursday March 7th at 630pm
Where: Children’s Museum(at the Hood Milk Bottle), Boston, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “We’re wrapping up our Winter Public Art Series with an Artists’ Walk & Talk,Thursday March 7th at 630pm. Meet the artists on site, hear about their projects, and gather to warm up over hot cocoa afterwards! Starting at 630 at the Hood Milk bottle, outside the Boston Children’s Museum on the Harborwalk and Congress Street”
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The Romantics
(Pixies, Amy Ross)
When: On view through April 13th, 2013
Where: Drive-By Projects, 81 Spring Street, Watertown, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “You may not have time to stop in, but there’s always time to drive by!
Located at 81 Spring Street in Watertown, MA, Drive-By is a small, innovative space committed to exhibiting provocative work in its storefront windows and small gallery.
Founded by Beth Kantrowitz (Allston Skirt Gallery) and Kathleen O’Hara (OHT Gallery), Drive-By is open Thursdays 12-4 and by appointment, though you can always drive by our windows to view the current exhibition.”
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Danielle Kelly & Gary LaPointe: Force/Fragments
(Gary LaPointe)
When: On view through March 24th, 2013
Opening reception: Friday March 1, 5:30-8:00pm
Where: Laconia Gallery, 433 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “Laconia Gallery is pleased to present two outstanding Fine Arts Majors from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University for their BFA senior thesis exhibition.
Danielle Kelly and Gary LaPointe work directly with common materials as familiar outside of the art world as they are to generations of artists. These natural objects and construction materials are elegantly arranged, balanced or organized into new constellations that use equal measures of restraint and obsessive organization to reveal intensity and weight in the final installation. In addition to large scale sculptural installations a series of prints by each artist will be exhibited as well as free standing and wall related sculptures.
Each artist has a distinct gesture and magnitude, but both have a mature grasp of the formal aspects they illuminate through use of wall, floor and overall space of the gallery.”
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J. Rebecca Trueblood – Ghosts Redux
When: On view through April 2nd, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday March 1st, 6-8PM
Where: M O V I M I E N T O 450 Harrison Ave, # 61 Boston, Ma 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “The circle here is a stand-in for individual presence; each is a unit like an egg, a seed, an eye or a face. I have had an irrational fear at times that I am slipping sideways out of reality, that like a character in a certain Twilight Zone episode, I will fade away and no one will know me. These are a direct response to that eerie feeling; these beings are in all phases of realization, from solid to ethereal, and they cluster in a desire to connect, be close, and stay real.”
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Lest We Forget
When: On view through March 2013
Opening Reception: Friday March 1st, 6-8PM
Where: Galatea Fine Arts, 460B Harrison Ave., #B-6, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “The over-riding theme of Segaloff’s works, “Lest We Forget,” incorporates family mementos and found objects as narrative tools to memorialize deceased relatives and to revisit historic events and social values. Her art collection depicts children on ponies dressed as cowboys juxtaposed with visions of the Holocaust and the horrors of war. The importance of appreciating different perspectives and bearing witness to injustices are also recurrent themes.
The title piece of her collected works, “Lest We Forget,” is a white baby shoe with blue ribbons which is encased in wires and rusty nails. It represents thousands of baby shoes in Holocaust museums around the world, and it is a reminder that in all wars, the physical and psychological scars left in their wake never fully disappear, not only for generations who survive but also for those that follow.
“I believe art can serve a higher purpose,” she says, reflecting back on her forty-year career as a social worker. “Artists throughout history have used art to speak out against tyranny and to help make the world a better place. I’m proud to be a part of that tradition.” – Ruth Segaloff”
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StrokeTraceBlow
When: On view through March 9th, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, March 1st, 5:30pm
Where: Steven Zevitas Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: Read Globe review of the exhibition here.
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The Work of Rob Douglas
(J-496, Elementare I)
When: On view through March 21st, 2013
Where: Chase Young Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
What/Why: “In the Yucatan region of Mexico, a ‘Cinote’ is the name of a network of underground freshwater rivers and caverns occurring primarily in this area and a part of life for centuries. A rich and abundant source of potable water discovered by the ancient Mayans and still used today. It is estimated that there are over 6000 of these underground rivers throughout the Yucatan Peninsula.
These underground rivers were formed by forces of nature (much like the way giant sink holes are formed) over a very long period and were considered holy sights by the natives, especially in times of drought. They also considered the Cinotes to be the entrance to the underworld, which I found to be very fascinating. Filled with brilliant blue, crystal clear cold water, this vast underground storage system of unusual caverns filled with stalactites and stalagmites is truly a work of art in itself.
Their magic, enigmatic nature and pristine beauty, I found to be a great marvel.
After many years after my travels to the Yucatan, I was again reminded by an acquaintance who resides in one of the small villages there – of the ESSENCE OF THE naturally occurring CINOTE’S in the region.
I had stored away the emotional charges and visions and memories of the beauty of the Cinotes and their history until this day where they surfaced once again after our discussion. It is said that from the depths of certain Cinotes, the tree roots can be seen from below. I was not able to see this myself, but the descriptions by others could only spark my imagination.
I sense it was a chain reaction that occurred that set off the inspiration for much of this latest body of work in which I seek to express some of the forgotten magic of one of Mexico’s finest treasures.
A great deal of the magic of that region is its colorful imagery, rustic and simplistic lifestyles steeped in its ancient history. The intense vibrant colors in everything there from architecture, to pottery, and paintings -, the ocean waters and to the depths of the many existing Cinotes and even the smiles on the native inhabitants is the true essence of the region. This powerful magic has spoken to me once more and as well as the rather crude and rustic imagery that was sparked by it. I would say the color palette used this time, best expresses my emotional connection to the region and the Cinotes themselves.”
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Epicenter Talks – Jay Gordon of Bodega
(Bodega x Dana Woulfe from MRNVR on Vimeo)
When: Tuesday March 5th, 2013 6-7:30PM
Where: Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, 100 West Second Street, Boston, MA
How: Official Website
What/Why: “In 2006, Jay Gordon did what most of us only dream about; he followed his passions for contemporary art, culture and fashion by co-founding Bodega (www.bdgastore.com). Now an internationally recognized brand and one of Boston’s coolest boutiques, Bodega is a destination for fashion-savvy shoppers.”
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♂/☺/♫
