Summer greetings!
Since Artscope Magazine’s inception, it’s been a goal of ours to have our magazine serve a vital role not only for those at the top of the field, but those trying to make their first impression at their home gallery and play a helpful role when they achieve putting together their first solo exhibition.
As we’ve been publishing for over 18 years now, we’ve seen many artists compile a large archive of their work, sometimes needing a second storage space to keep it all. Many of them are at the point of wondering what happens to all their heartfelt work when they pass on or the time arrives that they’re not actively creating.
In the instance of former MassArt professor Rob Moore, there was no time to plan as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1992. Highly influential to his students, one of them, John Guthrie, recently presented a retrospective exhibition of Moore’s work at Gallery VERY in Boston. With the help of other friends and artists, Guthrie is compiling the Rob Moore Project to document and preserve his work and legacy. Artscope’s J.M. Belmont shares the details in this issue.
When I first met Madeleine Lord last summer, along with her voicing her interest to write for us, she told me how she had recently decided it was time to wind down her gathering of materials for her scrap metal sculptures and work to find forever homes for her already assembled art pieces. She writes about the artistic downsizing process and shares the stories of several other artists who are contemplating whether to do the same.
Lord also contributes reviews to two major group shows — Hera Gallery’s 50th Anniversary “Past and Present” celebration and the “88th Regional Exhibition of Art and Craft” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, in which she herself is an exhibitor, as is also the case at the “Danforth Annual Juried Exhibition 2024” and “Sculpture at the Mount” in Lenox, Massachusetts.
There are plenty of other group shows of note this summer in New England: The Providence Art Club’s “National Open Juried Exhibition” continues through July 19; The Copley Society of Arts’ annual “National Exhibition: Exuberance Released” opens July 17 and runs through August 17 on Newbury Street, Boston; the Cambridge Art Association’s “National Prize Show 2024” runs through August 1; and the ”9th Biennial FOOTPRINT International Exhibitions” runs through August 25 at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, Connecticut.
Attleboro Arts Museum’s annual “8 Visions,” always a highlight of the summer season, opens July 27 and continues through August 24; this year’s artists, originating from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, are John Buron, Peter Campbell, Katherine Desy, Memy Ish Shalom, Joni Lohr, Karen Reid, Erin Spencer and James C. Varnum.
We were excited to learn about the grand (re) opening of Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont as it returns to its role as a major arts center as well as host and presenter of performing arts events in the Northeast Kingdom, and that ArtSpace Maynard, from which many Artscope-profiled artists originated, has a much-deserved second life. They’ve teamed up with 6 Bridges Gallery to present “Untangled,” a Janet Kawada-juried fiber art exhibition on view through August 3, while a “Summer Salon” will reunite ArtSpace Maynard’s artists on July 18 at the Barbara Erwin Gallery.
Continuing her mission to help protect art spaces and studios throughout Massachusetts via the #ArtStaysHere campaign, Ami Bennitt traveled to Easthampton to the Cottage Street Studios to talk with artists who recently learned their rent would be raised astronomically, threatening the future of a building the city had built a growing arts community around. While their stories sound familiar, there’s hope the community-at-large will find a way to keep the progress going there.
Artscope publisher Kaveh Mojtabai was on hand for the opening of Marilyn Kalish’s West Newton Gallery, bringing her abstract paintings that were a longtime mainstay of Great Barrington’s Main Street in Western Massachusetts. I, with my wife Louise, spent an afternoon at the Whistler House Museum in Lowell to see and review its “Patrick McCay: A Thematic Retrospective – Explore, Exploit, Express” exhibition for this issue.
I haven’t been to the New Bedford Whaling Museum since the early days of the magazine; Beth Neville who lives closer to the museum than me also hadn’t been for a while till she was assigned covering its “Courtney M. Leonard: “BREACH” and “The Wider World of Scrimshaw” exhibitions — which she did, after being reminded how fascinating the museum’s entire collection can be.
Marjorie Kaye visited the 16-acre TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, combining a much-needed experience with nature with their permanent and temporary art exhibitions that you might put on your list of New England art wanderlust adventures for summer or early fall season. Similarly, Marta Pauer- Tursi explored the “New England Now: Strange States” show at the Shelburne Museum, located just south of Burlington, Vermont and a short drive to the west to Lake Champlain, making it another premier destination.
Speaking of travel, Claudia Fiks attended both Art Basel 2024 in Switzerland as well as the Venice Biennale, reporting on both in this issue. Fiks did this while laying the groundwork for her next project, The Art Gallery (TAG) which will be located in the SoWa Boston Art and Design District.
Just as the Boston Celtics were winning their 18th National Basketball Association championship, Suzanne Volmer was visiting basketball courts in Providence as part of a look at the partnership between My HomeCourt and the Providence College Art Galleries to have an artistic element added by established artists, on an annual basis, to the city’s courts most used by area youths. The most recent, the 9th Street Court Project created and painted by Sanford Biggers in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence in 2023, brings a new element to the now thousands of murals that have brightened the regions walls in the past decade.
Our issue’s grand finale is a large feature by Lee Roscoe that coincides with the 40th anniversary of the publication of her first book, “Wrap Yourself a Designer Dress.” Her story, a profile of the career of Berta Walker celebrates the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown through a great collection of images compiled by Walker with the help of her gallery director, Grace Hopkins, and a look back at her days in New York City, the Whitney Museum and other galleries; her arrival at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the opening of her own gallery; and, most importantly, what lessons and legacy she wants to leave for future generations.
So, grab yourself a cold drink, sit down, enjoy our 111th issue and plan a summer of art driven adventures.
Brian Goslow
Managing Editor bgoslow@artscopemagazine.com