ARTIST PROFILE BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM 159 E. MAIN STREET NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS JUNE THROUGH SEPTEMBER FOR MORE INFORMATION: MAGGIE NOWINSKI INSTALLATION ARTIST MAGGIENOWINSKI.ORG Viewing Maggie Nowinski’s “wHoles” is akin to studying the basic building blocks of yourself. Look into a microscope at your own skin. What might you see? Could those millions of cells inhabiting your internal spaces transform into braided rings of yarn, hair scrunchies or floating jellyfish hoods? Deceptively simplistic on the surface, these complex circular discs we call cells are the models for Nowinski’s newest large-scale drawing installation, which will exhibit at the Berkshire Art Museum in North Adams, Mass. this June through September. What was once a spontaneous sketch Nowinski created in the summer of 2016 quickly became a recurring image in her drawing practice. Always … [Read more...] about A WHOLE NEW VIEW: NOWINSKI’S GROTESQUE BEAUTY
May/June 2018
LAYERS OF CALM AT BOWDOIN: POUSETTE-DART GOES DEEPER
FEATURED MUSEUM RICHARD POUSETTE-DART: PAINTING/LIGHT/SPACE BOWDOIN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART 245 MAINE STREET BRUNSWICK, MAINE THROUGH SEPTEMBER 16 An idyllic and incredibly expensive prestigious liberal arts college, Maine’s Bowdoin College boasts a fabulous art museum. The campus and the museum reek of history, gorgeous architecture and a gleefully rich endowment. The current direction of the museum is the hands of three refugees from Washington’s Smithsonian. Most uniquely, the titular heads of the institution, the co-directors, are actually a husband and wife team. The concept of co-direction is familiar to me in football and sports, but most surprising in the world of aesthetics and art. I was able to interview co-director Anne Collins Goodyear on my recent visit, as her husband Frank was away at a photography caucus in Rochester, New York. My efforts to glean … [Read more...] about LAYERS OF CALM AT BOWDOIN: POUSETTE-DART GOES DEEPER
THE POWER OF MYTH: JAMES DYE AT WAM
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST EXPLORING THE MYTHS OF JAMES DYE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM 55 SALISBURY STREET WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2 It didn’t take long after James Dye had heard his name announced as the winner of the Sally R. Bishop Prize for Best in Show at the 2017 ArtsWorcester Biennial for the enormity of what had just occurred to set in. Along with a cash prize, he would receive a solo exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum — and he had 11 months to pull it together. His 40” x 27” “The Temple of the Burdened Host” dip pen and India ink drawing was selected as the top work by juror Samantha Cataldo (contemporary arts curator at the Currier Museum of Art), who in her statement explaining her decision wrote, “While the technique and imagery evoke art of the past — such as medieval manuscript illuminations or relief carvings on Hindu temples — the visuals of the … [Read more...] about THE POWER OF MYTH: JAMES DYE AT WAM
SOOTHING THE SOUL: NELLA LUSH
FEATURED ARTIST FOR MORE INFORMATION: NELLA LUSH CONTEMPORARY PAINTER NELLALUSH.COM Nella Lush paints in a style I will call, “Romantic Abstract Expressionism.” Mentor, group organizer and supporter of women’s careers, Lush is one of those extraordinary people who cares deeply about others. In addition, she is a fine painter who will be exhibiting in a number of galleries this spring and summer in Nantucket, Provincetown, Gloucester and her Boston studio. Born in Italy, she speaks with a lilting accent about her love of painting, her seven grandchildren and her women students. Lush was a founding member and president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Women Artists. She has taught women artists who, together, have founded a group called “Art from the Soul.” They are currently exhibiting at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck in Gloucester. (See … [Read more...] about SOOTHING THE SOUL: NELLA LUSH
ART FROM THE SOUL: NINE LIVES AT ROCKY NECK
FEATURED EXHIBITION ART FROM THE SOUL: NINE PAINTERS THE CULTURAL CENTER AT ROCKY NECK 6 WONSON STREET GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MAY 13 Nine women painters founded “Art from the Soul,” a group led by mentor and teacher Nella Lush. Exhibiting together at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, their paintings exemplify a style I call “Romantic Abstract Expressionism.” (See Nella Lush profile, page 36.) The painting techniques employed by Lush and her students demand a new vocabulary to describe them. “Scrubbery,” “color-mash,” “scribblery,” “tombstone-shape,” “shape-butting” and “paint-mixture” seem more appropriate than the often-used terms “painterly,” “brush-work” and “overlays.” If the women would contract the name of their group to “artfromthesoul” we will have invented another new expressive word. The artists’ style, method and content combine the tenants of … [Read more...] about ART FROM THE SOUL: NINE LIVES AT ROCKY NECK
MICROCOSMS OF LIFE: ARTSPACE MAYNARD’S BIOMORPHIC ALCHEMY
REVIEW BIOMORPHIC ALCHEMY: KAY HARTUNG + MICHELLE LOUGEE ARTSPACE MAYNARD 63 SUMMER STREET MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MAY 18 “Biomorphic Alchemy,” the second joint exhibit of Kay Hartung and Michelle Lougee, presents works inspired by life forms closely observed and fancifully imagined. Hartung studied photographs from electron microscopes and uses them as a jumping-off point in producing intricate, multi-layered, abstract paintings depicting cellular sub-organisms. The surface texture and the richness of her colors come from successive applications of encaustic, pot pastels and pigment stick. Lougee uses simplified forms referencing phytoplankton, zooplankton, and imagined cells in a drop of water to construct playful sculptures realized primarily in post-consumer plastic bags. Kay Hartung’s thematic paint-ing series — “Bio Patterns,” “Entanglements,” “Bio Flow,” … [Read more...] about MICROCOSMS OF LIFE: ARTSPACE MAYNARD’S BIOMORPHIC ALCHEMY