Artscope Magazine: May/June 2006

The building of the New ICA: an architectural wonder

Frank W. Liu

What makes contemporary art unique and significant is its up-to-date expression; its artistic content is diverse in its modes and manners and its metamorphosis indefinable. Since the concept may encompass anything and everything new, imagine the challenge the architect must face when commissioned by The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston to deliver a state of the art, cutting edge exhibition facility for the public to experience new interactive art forms.

Community spotlight

The Rebel Shakespeare Company
Salem, MA

Shakespeare Now! Theatre Company
Westwood, MA

If all the world’s a stage, surely a lot of Shakespeare is constantly spilling out into the community to positively impact people’s lives. Two wonderful organizations, Rebel Shakespeare and Shakespeare Now! are keeping the meaning, beauty, and importance of this great playwright’s work alive through their vibrant programs for children in the Boston area.

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints

David Forest Thompson

Since they were first constructed in the 1920s and ‘30s, the three-mile stretch of dune shacks on the Provincetown and Truro portion of the Cape Cod National Seashore (aka “The Province Land”) has served as inspiration for, amongst many, playwright Eugene O’Neil, author Jack Kerouac, and actress Bette Davis. Even if you don’t visit them physically, their emotional pull and promise of peaceful serenity is never far from your mind when you visit Provincetown.

NEW ENGLAND/NEW TALENT

Franklin W. Liu

Fitchburg Art Museum
Merriam Parkway
Fitchburg, MA
through June 4
For more than a decade, every two years the Fitchburg Art Museum collectively sucks in its breath and sends out a call to artists, hoping to receive great works from emerging artists. Some years great metal things appeared, scary installations, and raucous political tirades, along with seminal works by artists who’ve used the show as a springboard to more active careers.

Celluloid Slant: “Thank You for Smoking”

William F. Daley, Jr.

In today’s politically correct world, the ability to spin is an art. In “Thank You for Smoking,” Jason Reitman’s feature film debut, the director makes spin look like an on-screen Mona Lisa. The difference is that Mona isn’t sitting there on the canvas looking sassy with her “enigmatic smile,” but instead she has tears rolling down her face as if someone had just told her a rip-roaring rendition of the timeless gag, “The Aristocrats.” This film is satire at its artistic best, and like the famous joke, it’s the art of “B.S.”

Disasters of Love: A Defense of Delilah

Michael Kuch and Greg Morell

R. Michelson Gallery
132 Main Street
Northampton, MA
Through September 2006
During the unveiling of his new art book “Disasters of Love: A Defense of Delilah” at the R. Michelson Gallery in Northampton, artist Michael Kuch put himself in the role of Samson and had his long black locks severed from his head.

DAVID THORPE: A MEETING OF FRIENDS

David Thorpe

Worcester Art Museum
55 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA
through August 13, 2006
This is British artist David Thorpe’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States, although the 34-year old has visited the States before and has had work shown at the MoMA in New York. He must also be the poster boy for OCD, to which his large meticulously executed collages will attest. The pieces of paper he uses to create these dynamic, and slightly otherworldly, images are so small he must use a tweezers and a toothpick to apply the glue and set each one in place. On close examination, he’s included bits of bark to shape his trees, along with threads and other detritus to add dimension.

BIOGRAPHICAL LANDSCAPE: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF STEPHEN SHORE, 1968-1993

Leon Nigrosh

Worcester Art Museum
55 Salisbury Street
through June 25, 2006
And right across the hall is an exhibition of more than 80 large-format color photos taken by Stephen Shore from the late ‘60s on. The wunderkind of New York City, Shore sold several photos to the Museum of Modern Art at age 14. By 17 he was the documentary photographer at Any Warhol’s eccentric Factory. And at age 24 he was the first living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the MoMA.

Touching Paint into Light

Michael Mazur

Barbara Krakow Gallery
10 Newbury Street
Boston
Through June 7
Critic and poet John Yau has praised Michael Mazur as an artist who knows how to make “painterly marks which are both precise and redolent” and perhaps this ability is the crux of the strength that has allowed Mr. Mazur to make such diverse marks in so many media while still palpably rooted and growing.

Touching Paint into Light

Michael Mazur