Addressing and exploring pressing issues, including climate change, social justice issues and personal freedoms through multiple art genres, the second “WOW (Wisdom of Women)” exhibition takes place from May 4 through June 23 at Workshop13 at the Artworks Gallery, 69 Main St. (Route 9), Ware, Massachusetts. “Art is most meaningful when it provokes thoughts that lead to change,” said curator Terry Rooney. More info on related events, including a rare performance by groundbreaking female rockers Fanny on May 11, at workshop13.org.
Featuring paintings on panel and vintage seashells, “Alexis Trice: Distancing Horizons,” which opens May 10 and continues through June 6 at gary marotta fine art gallery, 162 commercial street, Provincetown, Massachusetts, explores “the whole of life’s emotions and traumas through animal life and their environments” through New York-based Trice’s “synergistic visualizations of universal energies, elements, and existence. Life, light, flow, wonder and place become one in these magical works.”
Painting since graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1990, Sloat Shaw’s latest exhibition, “Crossing Veils; Paintings & Lithographs,” opens May 22 and continues through September 6 at the St. Botolph Club, 199 Commonwealth Ave., Boston Massachusetts, one of the city’s unique galleries with viewing on Wednesdays from 2-4 p.m. and by appointment Using a meditation technique to allow the images she encounters to voice the unseen longings of the earth, this show will feature Shaw’s images of a world communicating through dreams, made using thin layers of oil glazes that refract in light and change as the viewer moves. “Often, she cuts open the canvas, inserts gauze, stitches, shreds, and restitches the surface to reveal a landscape throbbing with energy.”
Curated by photographer Sally Chapman and featuring bookmakers Mariel Bass, Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine, Susan Gaylord, Ania Gilmore, Cristina Hajosy, Chris Perry, Marcie Scudder and Annie Zeybekoglu, the Brush Art Gallery & Studios, 256 Market St., Lowell, Massachusetts, is presenting “The Book as Sculpture” through May 25. “Works in this exhibition interpret the concept of the book and invite the viewer to look beyond the ideas of the printed page to see sculptural objects that are both intimate and monumental.”
Offering “a meditation on the delicate affinities between nature and humans,” “Christina Mastrangelo: What Nature Whispers,” opens June 8 and runs through July 3 at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts. “Inspired by the natural world and compelled to find grounding and peace in her surroundings, the artist” — the Guild’s youngest member and a Classical Realist who trained at the Angel Academy in Florence — “carefully orchestrates conversations between still-life, figure, flora and fauna that suggest the depth and interconnectedness of us all.”
Intended to inspire future generations, “Legacy: A Woman of Two Worlds,” celebrates the life and artwork of Frances Miller, a former student at Hebrew College, where she immersed herself in the study of Jewish texts and traditions, laying the groundwork for her lifelong commitment to Jewish education and observance. “Legacy: A Woman of Two Worlds” will be on view through June 18 in the school’s Mark E. Atkins and Family Atrium, 1860 Washington St., Newton, Massachusetts. “From vibrant interpretations of biblical narratives to abstract explorations of faith and identity, infused with a distinctive style characterized by bold brush strokes and layered colors, Miller’s oeuvre reflects the complex interplay between her Judaism and her artistic and humanist sensibilities.”
“Portraits of Resilience: Farming in a Changing Climate,” an exhibition on view through June 23 at Billings Farm and Museum, 69 Old River Rd., Woodstock, Vermont, features 26 original artworks by local artists that provide “an opportunity for the public to learn how area farmers are adapting and what each of us can do to help sustain our farms and food sources.” Through portraits in paint, print, fiber and digital media, the show celebrates “the resiliency, creativity, and problem-solving abilities of farmers in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire” who had to endure and survive two catastrophic floods over the past year.
Each year, the Solo Exhibition Program at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, 860 SVAC Drive, Manchester, Vermont, provides up to a dozen artists in a variety of media, genres and styles the opportunity to show their work. One of this year’s participants, Deanna Jacome, an interdisciplinary artist from Freeport, Maine, is presenting, “Living Tiny: Everyday Encounters” for which she made her own paints, inks and dyes from stones, flowers and more, to convey, “Mindful presence, sustainability, interconnected, grounded, interdisciplinary.” The works from this year’s collection of 11 artists remain on view through July 14.
“Gandzaran!” notable selections from the collection from the Armenian Museum of America, 65 Main St., Watertown, Massachusetts, draws from the museum’s vaults, highlighting “the development of Armenian art in the 20th and 21st centuries, from religious motifs to the Soviet period and its continuous reinterpretation among contemporary artists around the world,” according to Ryann Casey, who co-curated the show with Gary Lind-Sinanian and Elias Trout. “It’s a show full of diversity that demonstrates the breadth of history in Armenia and the Diaspora, featuring paintings, etchings, and sculpture.” adds Casey. The show continues through August 4.
“Inspired in part by Amy Padnani’s New York Times ‘Overlooked’ series of women and other remarkable people whose obituaries hadn’t appeared in the Times at the time of death – and should have,” the just-opened Julie Lapping Rivera’s “Look Again: Portraits of Daring Women” exhibition of woodcuts and poetry, on view through February 23, 2025 at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield Museums, 21 Edwards St., Springfield, Massachusetts, celebrates women’s achievements throughout history with portraits that include those of Sylvia Plath, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ida B. Wells and Henrietta Lacks.