Juror Lisa Crossman certainly had her work cut out for her. The Cambridge Art Association’s 2019 Members Prize show features paintings, photographs and sculpture by 60 regional artists. This year’s selection shows strength across many media, including oil, acrylic, fiber, ceramics and mixed media, with a particular excellence in photography. With so many strong submissions, Crossman — Ph.D., art historian and curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum — “sought to honor artists working in a range of styles, techniques and mediums” with her selection. “I was pleased to discover experimentation, skill, wit, whimsy, historical references, adept observation and beauty in this group of submissions,” Crossman said. Despite the diversity of media and subject matter, themes do emerge among the work. Noticeably, especially on the heels of what has been dubbed the second “Year of the Woman,” several … [Read more...] about EMERGING THEMES: YEAR OF THE WOMAN CONTINUES IN CAA MEMBERS SHOW
Current Issue
TURNING PLASTIC POLLUTION INTO ART: SMITH EXHIBITION ASKS ‘WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?’
Much of our planet is choking on plastic. Images of swaths of plastic debris crowding the oceans; birds starved with bellies full of bottle caps; massifs of discarded containers climbing to the sky — it is enough to make one recoil from the truth of the impact our so-called innovation has had on our fellow creatures, on beloved landscapes and on ourselves. Clearly, hiding will not reverse the course of our human folly. To change our ways while there is still time, we need to look squarely at the activities, appetites and lack of accountability which are leading us into an unsustainable future. But beyond our wish for a livable world, where is the incentive to address the question? How can the subject be broached in palatable ways? “Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials,” on view through late July at the Smith College Museum of Art, chronicles the interaction of … [Read more...] about TURNING PLASTIC POLLUTION INTO ART: SMITH EXHIBITION ASKS ‘WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?’
A CONVERSATION STARTER: THE DAVIS’ LATIN AMERICAN SURVEY SHOW SPARKLES
James Oles, professor of Latin American Art History at Wellesley and curator of Latin American Art at the Davis Museum, has for the past 20 years been building up a Latin American collection befitting an important regional museum. The three-dozen works in the collection in 1996 now exceed 500. A third of Oles’ new finds are showcased in “Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey” through June 9. One-third of the featured artists are women. The exhibition’s depth and value are confirmed in an impressive 260-page catalog containing commentaries from a wide field of experts on each work and artist. This show couldn’t be timelier. From a 21st-century standpoint, it prods us to ask: Who is doing the looking, then and now? What are we looking for? And what does our act of “looking” entail? Our exposure to and appreciation of these works serves a vital need to understand and respect our … [Read more...] about A CONVERSATION STARTER: THE DAVIS’ LATIN AMERICAN SURVEY SHOW SPARKLES
A PLACE FOR ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT: EXPANSION ALLOWS THE HOOD SPACE FOR DIALOGUE
The first thing that strikes you upon entering the Hood Museum of Art’s new atrium is the sense of space and airiness, inviting exploration of what lies beyond in numerous galleries and classrooms. The prominent entrance to the new and expanded Hood, with its large black-and-white mural and white walls, opens directly onto the Dartmouth College Green. It offers an inviting space where people can meet and where performances and other events can take place. Perhaps most importantly, it sets the tone for all that is new about the Hood, which reopened on January 26 after major renovation and expansion. The new museum, adding to the original 1985 Charles Moore building, is designed to bring together Dartmouth’s academic and research activities while emphasizing the college’s vast art collection, one of the largest of its kind in the country with over 65,000 works representing a variety … [Read more...] about A PLACE FOR ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT: EXPANSION ALLOWS THE HOOD SPACE FOR DIALOGUE
RODIN; MODERNIST GENIUS, 1840–1917: DYNAMIC WORKS PROVE SCULPTOR’S LASTING GREATNESS
Two men, Saint John the Baptist and Honoré de Balzac, separated by 2000 years, by different cultures and languages, by geographical location and physical appearance, are brought to life by one of the world’s greatest sculptors, Auguste Rodin. The bronze sculptures of St. John and Balzac are exhibited at the Cantor Gallery of the College of the Holy Cross along with many other works by the famous French sculptor. Great art has longevity and Rodin’s works are as powerful now as they were when he first put his hand into a lump of clay, gouging and pushing the wet mass into portrait-likenesses of intimate friends, nude female models or imagined personalities like St. John. The key to powerful and lasting art is universality and emotional truth. In great art, we recognize the humanity, the alertness and the fragility of individuals. Rodin’s most famous examples of these attributes are “The … [Read more...] about RODIN; MODERNIST GENIUS, 1840–1917: DYNAMIC WORKS PROVE SCULPTOR’S LASTING GREATNESS
DEATH, DESTRUCTION, REGENERATION: MATT BARNEY’S TEMPORARY FORTIFICATION AT YALE
Sculptor and filmmaker Matthew Barney has been pushing boundaries for many years now — and his deeply complex multi-media exhibition, “Redoubt,” created during the years of 2016–2019, promises to take audiences on yet another far-ranging conceptual ride. The exhibition trains its lens on winter in Idaho’s deeply rugged Sawtooth Mountains, a place where one still encounters elk and Dall sheep as well as a pack of wolves that have been reintroduced to the wild. Through film and objects, including four monumental sculptures, his narrative surrounding a mythic wolf hunt gradually emerges, asking viewers to contemplate stories drawn from classical mythology as well as archetypal ideas about humans versus nature that have dominated the Western landscape. Barney, who grew up in Idaho and has long been drawn to the Sawtooth region, has once again collaborated with composer Jonathan Bepler, … [Read more...] about DEATH, DESTRUCTION, REGENERATION: MATT BARNEY’S TEMPORARY FORTIFICATION AT YALE