As the start of December approached, photographer Peter Moriarty was eagerly waiting for a delivery of 90 boxes holding 10 copies each of his new self-published book, “Warm Room: Photographs from Historic Greenhouses.” Its release coincides with an exhibition at the Cantor Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is the culmination of a 25-year plus project, although the roots of some of the images goes back much further. Its cover features the Royal Palm House, “probably the most famous single structure in the world for a greenhouse,” according to Moriarty. It was taken at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in a suburb of London and serves as a perfect example of the majestic hold greenhouses have held on our senses, both visually and sensually, for ages. One of his Palm House prints is presented in a negative format to fully present the skeleton and design … [Read more...] about “These Little Worlds”: Moriarity’s Greenhouse Photos At Holy Cross
Current Issue
RICH IN MEANING AND MESSAGE: BULL’S BOOK OF PAINTING AND POETRY A GROUP EFFORT
One of only a handful of women painters in Louis K. Meisel’s stable of top Photorealists in the early 1970s,Fran Bull, by the mid-‘80s, had quit the movement, moved to Vermont and turned toward a more nourishing figural and gestural abstraction. In the years since, she has created a distinctive and profound body of work. Bull’s paintings, etchings and relief sculpture have been prominently exhibited in Barcelona, Milan and the Venice Biennale. Now, rather than waiting for the retrospective that is her due, she’s charged ahead with a book that pits her poetry against her two-dimensional work of the past three decades. Voice is at the heart of both Bull’s poetry and her visual form — not surprising for a classically trained singer. Her semi-abstract imagery takes on the female body as a site of reverie, sensations, dreams, relationship and sound. Her fluid marks reveal rudimentary … [Read more...] about RICH IN MEANING AND MESSAGE: BULL’S BOOK OF PAINTING AND POETRY A GROUP EFFORT
Inspiring The Next Generation: Watercolor Society’s Annual Boston Show Precedes Move
New England Watercolor Society Marks 135-Years with the 2020 Signature Members Show. The New England Watercolor Society is one of the oldest watercolor societies in the nation. Its 2020 Signature Members Show, which takes place in February at the Guild of Boston Artists, is a continuation of its solid 135-year history. The Society’s first exhibition was held in 1885. It began as the Boston Watercolor Society. The inaugural show featured nearly 50 works from over a dozen artists. Among them were F. Childe Hassam, Thomas Allen, Charles Henry Sandham, John A. Fraser, George R. Barse Jr., Phillip Little and Ross Turner. Its earliest members included Frank W. Benson, John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth. Then, as now, the New England Watercolor Society’s raison d’être was to establish and “promote excellence and diversity in watercolor and to bring exceptional paintings, both … [Read more...] about Inspiring The Next Generation: Watercolor Society’s Annual Boston Show Precedes Move
NOW ABOUT THAT BANANA… MIAMI ART WEEK 2019 DEMOCRATIZED THE ART WORLD
Miami Art Week 2019 hosted the people’s fairs. Artists at the most democratic fairs ever at Miami Beach and Miami during Miami Art Week used art and craft to deliver clear messages for all the people, showering truth over fictions. Looking toward the future, and back toward the past, work addressed truth versus colonial myth and threats to our common environment, be they political or climatic. The work demanded that we look at ourselves, examine our attitudes and recognize our differences but realize we must come together to save our common world. Had I a fortune, I would spend it at Landau Fine Art, Montreal, for “Caroline,” 1963, oil on canvas, the Alberto Giacometti painting full of mournful emotion expressed in grays and taupes with sparing lines on an off-white ground; so little said with so few lines, each making a mournful mark. Yves Tanguy’s “Titre inconnu” (5634), 1927, oil … [Read more...] about NOW ABOUT THAT BANANA… MIAMI ART WEEK 2019 DEMOCRATIZED THE ART WORLD
Capsule Previews: January/February 2020
The new year traditionally brings with it the introduction of the next lineage of artists welcomed into the Copley Society of Art through its New Members Show. “Selected by the Membership Committee of the Copley Society of Art, new members are accepted for membership only if their work is truly outstanding. This year, our new artist members represent a great diversity of backgrounds and media, including pastel, photography and watercolor.” Joining CoSo’s roster are C.R. Bryant, Wray Clifford, Meghan Cochran, Scott Crystal, Whitney Dellea, K.E. Duffin, Pedro Gonzalez, Christy Gunnels, Whitney Heavy, Lai Sin Hew, Sandra Kavanaugh, Maryann Lucas, Amy Roberts, Jed Sutter and Melissa Post van der Burg. The exhibition takes place from January 9 through February 9 at the Copley Society of Art, 158 Newbury St., Boston. “Natural Lineage,” an exhibition featuring paintings by father and … [Read more...] about Capsule Previews: January/February 2020
DORGAN’S SMOKY SURFACES: PORTRAIT DRAWINGS DRAW VIEWERS CLOSER
I pretended to hand over the clipboard and pen I was using to take down the rumination of my interviewee, on two of his upcoming drawing exhibitions (the first of which was displayed at Newton Free Library in December). “Here,” I said to Eugene Dorgan, a full professor at Lesley University. “Why don’t you just write the article?” The joke was that in our culture, the visually minded, so the stereotype goes, prefer to grunt rather than answer with sentence and paragraph when asked to comment on their talent. But, as I listened to my questions being answered with comments that asked more questions, and read Professor Dorgan’s answers to the emailed follow-up questions which answered fully and yet on careful reading, posed still more questions, I began to think that the joke, if taken too seriously, is on us. Visual culture, certainly can’t be reduced to words, just as words lose … [Read more...] about DORGAN’S SMOKY SURFACES: PORTRAIT DRAWINGS DRAW VIEWERS CLOSER