Smooth & Smoky at Vessels, Varujan Boghosian at Victoria Munroe

By Brian Goslow

BOSTON-Varujan Boghosian is one of New England’s most beloved artists — and collectors. The Hanover, New Hampshire resident has three studios filled with long-abandoned and unused artifacts of American every day life and discarded industrial age found at yard sales, flea markets and estate sales that he painstakingly turns into engaging works of art, collages and assemblages that will have you thrilled not only for their visual effect, but the emotional sparks they set off in your memory. Experience them first-hand from September 15 through October 29 at Victoria Munroe Fine Art, 16 Newbury Street in Boston.

Bringing together 10 of the best ceramic artists from around the world who’ve mastered the combined properties of flame, smoke and clay, “Smooth and Smoky,” which opens September 16 and continues through October 16 at the Vessels Gallery at 450 Harrison Street #71 in Boston’s SoWa District, promises to be a memorable event for lovers unglazed clay works. The show features England’s Jane Perryman, author of “Naked Clay” and “Smoke Firing”; Gabriele Koch (Germany); Roland Summer (Austria) and Dr. Simcha Even-chen (Israel), who join U.S. ceramic masters Susan Elena Esquivel, Vicki Hardin, Dick Lehman, Irina Okula, Pao-Fei Yang and the show’s curator, Judith Motzkin. There’s a workshop and gallery talk tied to the exhibition & you’ll have the chance to meet many of the artists during South End Open Studios Weekend on September 17 and 18.