New England Art Awakens
by J. Fatima Martins
“A New England Art Awakening” presents a highly eclectic collection of visual art — print, drawing, painting and sculpture — by 40 artists who have been featured in the four volumes of Chroma, an art publication curated by Tryptic Press.
As you would expect, the styles and modes vary, highlighting the wide range of material and formal practices explored by regional artists. The exhibition includes multiple forms of illustration and drawing modes, various categories of abstraction and expressive figuration, and design. There is also a set of functional wood chairs.
As an exhibition and presentation of visual creativity, it’s a limited but true smorgasbord, with a little of almost everything for everyone depending on taste and interest. In this installation, the artwork is divided into four Volumes reflecting how the work was included in the publication; the exhibition has, overall, an experimental “art school” tonality to it.
Although it feels incomplete and still in flux, there are some strong inclusions that serve as highlights. The “Best in Show” is Markus Sebastiano’s “Faded,” a textured, minimal, blue-, white- and grey-toned abstracted portrait of a woman’s head, in profile, created in mixed media on aluminum. Sebastiano is a popular and successful Bostonbased, mixed-media artist best known for his large-scale, vibrant, layered, semi-abstract figurative wall murals, which can be seen in various public business establishments
throughout the New England region and New York City.
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