“Smiling Out Loud,” paintings by DaNice D. Marshall “depicting ordinary life with smiles of joy,” opens July 1 at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, 98 Hayden Rowe St., Hopkinton, Massachusetts. “It is a familiar thread that reminds us that we’re more alike than we are different,” with the viewer invited, quietly, to experience “a moment without words and to feel lighter” as if you were walking into a room full of strangers, “who look at you and smile and you, in return, smile right back, without one word having been spoken.”
“Vastness,” abstract paintings, landscapes and textile works by Tarja Cockell, Sandrine Colson, Nan Hockenbury, Suzanne Hodge and Margarita Krylova, opens July 2 with a July 5 reception from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Loading Dock Gallery, 122 Western Ave., Lowell, Massachusetts. “Oceans, space, deserts, and the imagination are vast. These artists’ works, realistic to abstract, interpret the vastness theme, speaking to the nature of wide spaces and reach beyond the gallery’s windows to take our imaginations to limitless horizons.” The show continues through July 27.
“Spaces and Places,” pictorial interpretations by visionary artists Anne Davis, James Rauchman and James Secor, opens July 2 with a reception on July 11 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Vermont Supreme Court Gallery, 111 State St., Montpelier, Vermont. “The selection of works reflects the diverse ways these three Vermont artists explore the theme through questions of acceptance, memory, environments, family, gender, history, power, spirituality, nostalgia, anxiety or desire,” noted curators David Schutz and Mary Admasian. “This artwork uniquely explores and represents realms beyond the ordinary physical world, encompassing landscapes of the imagination which focus on inner realities that transcend the limitations of everyday life.”
Reintroducing the iconic symbol of 1960s activism, “Peace Signs of Vermont: In Search of Meaning, Art and Cultural Truth,” an exhibition of works by Zoë, Jasper and Shawn Dumont, opens on July 5 and runs through August 29 at the Karma Bird House Gallery, 47 Maple St., Burlington, Vermont. Over the past year, Shawn Dumont, founder of the Shelter Cultivation Project, and his two young children, spent the past year crisscrossing the states back roads in search of peace signs and the stories behind them. “What began as a spontaneous family adventure quickly became a deeper exploration of community, culture, and the enduring spirit of the back-to-the-land movement. Along the way, they discovered that these peace signs are more than symbols, they are living folk art, handmade expressions of hope and connection that quietly dot Vermont’s landscape.”
The Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, 10 Meetinghouse Road, Truro, Massachusetts recently celebrated the grand opening of its new exhibition space. from July 8 through 18, the Castle Hill Gallery spotlights Canadian-American artist Jackie Reeves, whose mixed media works combine figurative and abstract elements; large-scale, intricate drawings by Ray DiCapua that investigate the relationships between imagery and processes of perception, recognition and meaning making; and Connecticut-based sculptor David Boyajian, who strives, first in drawing form, then sculpturally, to create iconic forms that capture the moments — “a great unfolding” — when nature deconstructs itself. “Where Do We Go From Here?” — Castle Hill’s summer juried show selected by executive director Cherie Mittenthal, follows from July 22 till August 1.
Through meditation, Laura Klimenchenko finds a glimpse of the essence of being, manifesting it through colors, shapes and textures that create a symbiotic dance between the quiet conscious mind and the intangible that prevails in her work, more recently manifested for “Becoming Nothing,” a collection of her paintings and pastels arising on view through August 7 at Gary Marotta Fine Art, 162 Commercial St., Provincetown, Massachusetts. “To know the Self, you must let the unknown be known. Knowing is trusting, trusting is allowing, allowing requires nonjudgement, nonjudgement leads to presence. Your presence is necessary,” she said. “These have become guiding principles in my work, and it is with full presence that I strive to approach painting. In that presence there is freedom and discovery.”
Inspired by “their appreciation of the natural world, and the need to protect our fragile home,” acrylic and oil environmental painter — and Artscope contributor — Heather Stivison and watercolor artist Lisa Goren present “Duets: Two Artists and Our Blue Planet” from July 11 through August 15 at the Marion Art Center, 80 Pleasant St., Marion, Massachusetts, perfectly located between Route 6 and Buzzards Bay. “The luminous quality of the work reflects a fascination with water, with ice, and with observed patterns on earth.”
Investigating the effects of weather as both ephemeral and routine markers of daily life, Shona MacDonald’s “thick, hazy, cleer, blew” exhibition at Real Life Ways, 56 Arbor St., Hartford, Connecticut, which has its artist reception on July 17 at part of RAW’s monthly Creative Cocktail Hour networking gathering, explores themes of atmosphere, visibility and direction. Her hand-rendered drawings and muted palette that “conjure a sensation of temporal suspension, where narrative dissolves into climate and environment,” can be seen through August 24.
If you’ve followed the Savannah Bananas traveling baseball team at any point in recent years, you’ve probably seen one of their season highlights, a visit to Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, one of the oldest existing fields in the United States, having been built in 1910. For the past two decades, photographer Bill Chapman has dedicated considerable time at Rickwood Field, where he honors, photographs and documents surviving players of the Negro Leagues. A collection of those widely exhibited images that had been featured in several books, “The Gospel of the Negro Leagues,” can be seen throughAugust 1 at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Following the footsteps of an ancient Japanese method of ceramic repair, Wayne Miller, in his “Kintsugi Paintings: Paintings in the Narrative Tradition” exhibition of new works on display from August 15 through September 12 at Miller White Fine Arts, 708 Route 134, South Dennis, Massachusetts, addresses both the fragility and strength of human resilience in a world navigating massive cultural destabilization. “The art of golden joinery, Kintsugi is an ancient method of repairing what has been broken. Kintsugi masters repair ceramic pieces with “urushi” lacquer and gold dust, leaving the repair prominently visible. The same broken piece becomes a symbol of strength and a means to celebrate the beauty of imperfection rather than hide it. As such, Miller’s Kintsugi Paintings initiate a serious inquiry into the concept of human resilience in a world often shattered and seemingly beyond repair.”
“What the Waves May Bring,” drawings, mixed-media works, mosaics, and video by Duke Riley, best known for his richly detailed art that draws on tattoo flash, nautical folklore and overlooked histories, is on display through September 14 at the Cahoon Museum of American Art, 4676 Falmouth Rd., Cotuit, Massachusetts.
“Inspired by working waterfronts, Riley creates intricate artworks that are rooted in New England’s seafaring past yet are urgent and contemporary in message,” reimagining maritime artforms like scrimshaw and sailors’ valentines using plastic debris collected from beaches across the Northeast. “Riley’s art invites us to consider the impact of modern waste, especially the overwhelming presence of single-use plastics in our oceans and their role in environmental degradation.”
Highfield Hall and Gardens, 56 Highfield Dr., Falmouth, Massachusetts is once again, for the third time, hosting the College Women’s Association of Japan’s Contemporary Japanese Print Show. Proceeds from the sale of the original etchings and woodcut, silkscreen, lithograph and watercolor prints on view in “Trailblazers: Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Prints” will support Highfield’s cultural programs and the CWAJ scholarship fund. The only United States stop for this juried exhibition, it runs through October 26.
On view throughout the summer and into early 2026, “Into the Abstract” at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, 860 Southern Vermont Arts Center Drive, Manchester, Vermont features “two compelling voices in contemporary abstraction” — Paul Gruhler, who has explored geometric abstraction through paintings, drawings and sculpture and Neha Vedpathak, who grew up in Pune, India, and now resides in Detroit and embraces abstraction as a site of emotional and cultural exploration — “artists separated by generations but deeply connected through their commitment to form, process, and introspection.” Curated by Alison Crites, “Since inception, the touchstone of the project has been the striking visual language of geometry, space, and color that permeates and connects Paul and Neha’s work.”