New Bedford was recently named the seventh most artistic city in the nation by “the Atlantic” magazine, perfect timing for Alison Wells’ “Collage 02740” exhibition of recent paper collages of downtown New Bedford landmarks on view from May 3 through 21 at Colo Colo gallery, 29 Centre Street. “I wanted to depict downtown in a way that expressed the sweet and sometimes bittersweet facets of the things that make this quaint and quirky part of the city what it was yesterday and is today,” wrote the Trinidad native who moved to the city while pursuing a MFA in painting from uMass Dartmouth in 2004. Her work is influenced by New Bedford’s architecture, hidden histories, multicultural and ethnic make-up and its artistic community, which inspire her multicolored collages that integrate wide varieties of cut and torn paper that she utilizes as her palette.
“Stilled Life: the Work of Anat Shiftan” continues the Israel-born ceramic sculptor’s exploration of the dual role of nature in both its natural and domesticated settings, exploring how it alternates between “its symmetry and imbalance, its order and disarray.” She’s explored how this process has been interpreted over the years, just as interested in how those before her have presented their outside experiences as much as how they created the work used to present it. The exhibition runs from May 4 through 27 at the Vessels gallery, 450 Harrison Ave., Boston.
Winner of the international Encaustic Conference Award for Best in Show and named one of the year’s most intriguing artists by “the Wire” magazine in 2009, Robin Luciano Beaty’s “Recent Works” exhibition, taking place from May 11 through June 5 at Lanoue Fine Art, 125 Newbury Street, Boston, is the chance to see a collection of works by one of the most heralded of the recent slew of New England encaustic artists. Luciano Beaty, who incorporates “vintage photographs, letters, textiles and other found objects” into her work, said, in her artist statement for
the show, “My process is driven by the visceral journey of discovering something reminiscent rather than the recording of a specific space ... The act of scraping, tearing, building up and burning down the layers of wax from the surface is metaphor for digging into memory and allows me to navigate that internal journey.”
“Getting there: Design for travel in the Modern Age,” an exhibition curated by grand Circle travel in collaboration with Design Museum Boston, explores how the designs of today’s ships, trains and planes enhance our enjoyment of the travel experience — and the route the development of those vehicles has taken over the years. The images, artifacts and designs are intended to make viewers ponder what exactly makes for a “Golden Age for Travel” — and whether the good old days really trump modern times when it comes to vacationing. Join in the conversation from May 11 through September 1 at the grand Circle gallery, 347 Congress Street, Boston.
New Haven teacher Dan greene’s “the Monastery of the heavenly Forest” features “The Nun Dressed in Black” and “The Skyscraper Worker” as protagonists devoted to the holy grail of an apple orchard sitting inside a “Blue Fort.” Over time, their battles land them in the hospital, decapitated and burned at the stake, but somehow, they persist; the visual part of the third and fourth parts of the work-in-progress poem are visually documented on cardboard, found wood and furniture scrap in “Knife thrower: Works by Dan Greene,” which can be seen from May 12 through June 15 at interCambio, 756 Chapel Street in New Haven.
“Cig Harvey: You Look at Me Like an Emergency” is both the title of a new monograph and an exhibition — of the photographer’s self-portraits from the early 2000s and from relationships of over a decade — that’s described as “a visual autobiography ... that takes its viewer on a journey of rejection, hope,strength,lossandlovetofind a place called home.” Harvey will be on-hand for her show’s opening on May 19 at the Robert Klein gallery, 38 Newbury Street, Boston; it continues through June 23.
Billed as “the most comprehensive survey” of the area ever, the Cape Cod Museum of Art’s “the tides of Provincetown: Pivotal years in America’s oldest Continuous Art Colony (1899-2011)” is broken into eight sections, starting with Charles W. Hawthorne’s founding of the Cape Cod School of Art and the birth of the Provincetown Art Association, covering Modernist breakthroughs by Blanche Lazzell, Ross Moffett and their contemporaries, the hans hofmann School, the abstract expressionists to the opening of the tirca Karlis gallery, the rebirth of its place as an artistic Mecca toward the end of the 20th century and the Provincetown Art Colony today. The exhibition runs from May 19 through August 26 at CCMA, 60 Hope Lane, Dennis, Mass.
Ann Salk Rosenberg used art for over a decade to help her overturn what was thought to be a debilitating multiple sclerosis illness; miraculously, as she found herself more and more paralyzed, a doctor discovered that she suffered from a previously undiagnosed severe gluten allergy. A dietary correction not only gave Rosenberg back her life, but also allowed her to fully devote herself to her Pop Art-meets-‘50s-kitsch style acrylic paintings. You’ll be able to see them as part of the Newton (Mass.) open Studios Weekend May 19 and 20, when over 160 artists will be opening their doors from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Rosenberg Art Studio at “the Painted Lady” is at 153 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands; download a map of participating artists at newtonopenstudios.org.
While the timeless george Nick officially retired from teaching at Mass College of Art and Design back in 1994 to devote more time to his painting, he continues to teach one class per semester there, inspiring new generations to capture the landscapes that surround them. One of his students, Kimberlee Alemian, now a teacher herself, with Nick’s assistance has curated a show of his former students, many who’ve gone on to successful art careers. Each was asked to provide one of their works along with a photograph of themselves and, Alemian said, “a statement on how he influenced them and what, after all these years, they still reflect on as a result of study and interaction with him.” The end result, “galvanized truth: A tribute to george Nick,” which includes a contribution from the honoree himself, can be seen from May 20 to September 9 at the Art Complex, 189 Alden Street, Duxbury, Mass. “All of the artists and peers invited to be in the exhibition trusted in the project from the moment they were contacted, and responded without reservation,” Alemian said. “This in itself is a testament to him.”
Boston Sculptors gallery, 486 Harrison Ave., Boston, continues to take imaginations young and old to new places with challenging exhibitions that demand your full attention — and almost always leave you reconsidering what you can be and do. Its “george Sherwood: MAChiNE tears” exhibition, which runs from May 23 through June 24, has the Ipswich-based sculptor utilizing stainless steel chips (i.e. “tears”) left behind on his lathe from his many previous projects which can be seen throughout the region (including the entrance to the Currier Museum of Art) and transformed into “frozen bodies of energy.” Indeed, his “All Warm and Fuzzy” piece will, at first, probably make you think you could hug it like a beloved teddy bear and while that probably isn’t advised (both to preserve the work and your hands), it does seem to be a living, breathing object. How many times have you seen something like that in a gallery or museum?
The Flash Forward international Festival of Emerging Photography returns to Boston’s Fairmount
Battery Wharf from June 7-10. Along with curated exhibitions both inside and outside (including the Magenta Foundation’s “Flash Forward group Show” and “Aline Smithson: Arrangement in green and Black: Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother Series”) that will be complemented by a Harborwalk exhibition featuring work from local galleries, the free festival based on the city’s North End waterfront welcomes emerging photographers to attend its lectures, panel discussions and nightly events with the hope they’ll leave with new opportunities, connections and friends. The “Flashed: New England Photographers group Show” was curated by Eunice hurd of the Robert Klein gallery and Jason Landry of Panopticon gallery, featuring Andrew MK Warren, Jordan Kessler,gregory Vershbow, Sarah Malakoff, Mitch Weiss, Brian Kaplan, Rania Matar, Gustav Hoiland, Keiko Hiromi and Cary Wolinsky, takes place from May 22 through June 14 at 450 harrison Street #75 (garden Level) in Boston’s South End. For a complete schedule of events, visit flashforwardfestival.com.
There were many more exhibitions we’d like to have fit into this issue’s Capsule Previews; for more news on exhibitions and performing art events in the New England region, read the artscope blog at artscopemagazine.com and “like” artscope magazine on facebook.
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