What About War at Resnikoff Gallery Roxbury Community College

By James Foritano

Roxbury, MA – “Ars longa, vita brevis” keeps bobbing into my consciousness ever since some Latin sage (go Google him) launched that pithy phrase so many vanished empires ago. It certainly described my recent experience at the Joan Resnikoff Gallery at Roxbury Community College.

I had been assigned by Artscope to track down the sculpture of Ruth Rosner, soon to appear at Copley Place Center Court in an exhibition titled “(Un) Covering Violence Transformed,” but available for viewing right now at the Resnikoff Gallery in its current “What About War” exhibit.

So, intrepid reporter that I am, I hopped on the Orange Line to arrive at Roxbury Crossing and step gingerly across Columbus Avenue to arrive at my goal. Ms. Rosner’s sculptures were indeed on view and did indeed brim with the virtues I expected to experience after a brief, intense online preview.

Filling my notebook with a dutiful, but deeply inadequate translation of experience into the paltry coin of words, I allowed my attention, now at leisure, to wander curiously to other corners of “What About War.” An adjoining corner soon claimed my attention with that vice-like hold I reserve for art or heavy traffic — thankfully, in this case, the former.

Artists Hope Ricciardi and Morris Norvin struck their own resonantly individual chords in this group meditation on the art and science of war: Ms. Ricciardi with drawings so delicate and evocative they could have been breathed upon waving panels of translucent paper; Mr. Norvin with a terrifyingly human figure welded of sharp edges and a rabid patina of rust. These pieces seemed to be both alone in their virtuosity and twinned as exemplars of creation and destruction.

Other corners soon opened to my consideration of yet other artistic statements, showing once again that art is always longer than we think, and life briefer.

But, to quote another sage, “It’s never too late.” So hurry on over to see “What About War,” which remains on view through September 5 at Roxbury Community College’s Joan Resnikoff Gallery, 1234 Columbus Ave., Roxbury. There will be an artist reception and gallery forum on the exhibition on Thursday, September 4 from 6-8 p.m. The event will be led by Dr. Edmund Barry Gaither of the Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists.

“(Un) Covering Violence Transformed” continues through September 12 at Copley Place Center Court, 100 Huntington Ave., Boston.

Both these exhibitions include the art of Ruth Rosner along with other selected artists under the aegis of Boston’s ambitious and timely project, “Violence Transformed.” For more information, visit violencetransformed.com.)