Dear Artscope reader,
Since 2006, we’ve been honored to bring the stories of the arts community of New England and beyond to you, always believing the best contribution that we can make to a peaceful world is through the stories of artists and the cultures they bring with them through their work; whether they were born in the United States or a distant world we get to know these personal interactions; whether visually or in person, ideally over a cuisine that expands our appreciation for the planet that we live on.
As we finished work on this issue, our publisher, Kaveh Mojtabai, told me, “Entering into our 20th year means everything in the world to me.” His initial goal in establishing the magazine of, “Shifting the paradigm from critique and exclusive control to a reflective, egalitarian approach in coverage and community while giving a voice to artists and to allow the public and patrons to make their own judgments and sense out of what each work means to them.
“We’ve strived to foster dialogue and humanity in practice, through multiple media platforms, where this magazine, as a vehicle, navigates the floods and pitfalls of politics, so-called industry competition, and human conditioning to give each person a chance to find their own creative spirit,” he added.
Mojtabai drove over three hours from our Boston-area office to the opening reception for “Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai: Living Light” at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, an event so well-attended that he missed Elayne Clift, who was there to see the show and talk with the Indigenous artist for the story that you see featured on this issue’s cover.
We open our 115th issue with Suzanne Volmer’s review of “The Art of French Wallpaper Design” that’s enhanced by her interview with Emily Banas, the RISD Museum’s Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, who oversaw the conservation of the works in the show and developed the Providence exhibition.
Having long followed and researched the work of Leonora Carrington, Carolyn Wirth enthusiastically pitched reviewing “Dream Weaver,” a unique show covering Carrington’s career of surrealistic writing, painting, drawing, tapestry and sculpture, that’s on view at the Rose Art Museum on the campus of Brandeis University through June 1.
We’re always looking to bring new voices to the magazine. In this anniversary issue, we welcome Heather Stivison, who profiles Katy Rodden Walker and her “Community Blooms” exhibition at the New Bedford Whaling Museum; and Lexie Gondek, who reviews the “Modern Women: Visionary Artists” exhibition that brings Joan Brown, Jenny Holzer, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, Louise Nevelson and Lee Krasner back into the spotlight at the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Lee Roscoe pulled together 50 years of African American Master Artists in Residence Program at Northeastern University history that’s being celebrated in “Out of the Fire” at the Nesto Gallery at Milton Academy. I’m sure you’ll find some of the work by AAMARP members familiar while other pieces will cause you to seek out the rest of their portfolios.
Roscoe also provides an in-depth look at the “Clara Wainwright: GLORY: A Satirical Retrospective of Fabric Collages” exhibition at the Paul Dietrich Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that shows how art can be quietly subversive while commenting on events of the day.
Sonia Richter brings us a look into the “ecofuture” through her review of “the ShowRoom” at Boston’s Fort Point Arts Community’s Art Space. Bayda Asbridge’s “Children of War” exhibition at Babson College’s Hollister Gallery is previewed by Claudia Fiks, who also shares her highlights from the Cambridge Art Association’s 2025 Members Prize Show.
Beth Neville always brings a healthy skepticism to covering group shows and that continues with her review of the Duxbury Art Association’s annual group exhibition at the Art Complex Museumthat’s complimented by a look at “Steven Branfman: Fifty Years Above the Wheel” — and an introduction to its new Executive Director — Peter Mello.
Several solo shows are spotlighted: Nat Martin’s “Over Days” at the Kingston Gallery (by Isabel Barbi); “Robert Maloney: Innerstates” at 13FOREST (by Erica DeMatos) and “John Gerdin: Elements” at Lapin Contemporary in North Adams, Massachusetts (by Marjorie Kaye).
Linda Sutherland visited Peter Batchelder at his southern New Hampshire studio to discuss his abundantly colorful landscape paintings that he rarely shows in public but are well-promoted online, especially on his Instagram and Facebook pages. We hadn’t planned on covering Michael Beatty’s “Fabrications” exhibition at the Cantor Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross but photographs of the show’s opening by Madeleine Lord and others online convinced me that his sculpture show was one not to be missed.
Laura Shabott checks in with Fine Arts Work Center fellow Edd Ravn, currently showing work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Along with a unique creative process that includes growing bacteria, painting with rainwater, recording soundscapes and designing public furniture, the New Haven, Connecticut resident also works as a sheep shepherd at his family’s farm in North Yorkshire, England.
Marta Pauer-Tursi catches up with Bunny Harvey and her latest exhibition, “Worlds Within Worlds,” at Burlington City Arts in Vermont, while I had the challenge of fitting the dozen exhibitions that comprise “Stephen DiRado, Better Together: Four Decades of Photographs” at Fitchburg Art Museum into a single feature.
During our almost two-decade existence, we’ve seen a lot of art venues close their doors. It’s rare that we see one reopen after a long absence. J.M. Belmont has the story on the opening of a new space, The Wall, by Panopticon Gallery, based in the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston’s Kenmore Square. We’ve always aimed to cover art from all angles. Sawyer Smook-Pollitt visited Gallery X in New Bedford and The Dirt Palace Gallery and the WaterFire Arts Center in Providence for a behind-the-scenes look at the people that curate exhibitions there.
We continue, as much as time allows, to complement our magazine coverage through stories in the Artscope Online section of our website, artscopemagazine.com, as well as social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, X, and now, Blue Sky, where you can follow us at @artscopemagazine.bsky.social.
We are in the process of moving our magazine’s tablet edition onto Amazon Kindle. The free Artscope mobile app will continue to be available on Google Play and the App Store on your phone. Meanwhile, if you have a current tablet subscription, we will, on request, mail you a print issue until our Amazon Kindle version becomes available.
You can now get online access to view and read entire Artscope articles at artscopemagazine.com/subscribe/. “Your online registration supports our writers and their ability to give artists their voice. This means more patrons, directors, curators and the public will interact with artists, their work and exhibitions. Through more purchases and exhibition of artwork, you are part of growing our cultural economic engine,” publisher Mojtabai said.
Thanks to you, our devoted readers, our advertisers and most of all our contributors, with much appreciation, for your continued support.
Brian Goslow, managing editor
bgoslow@artscopemagazine.com