By James Foritano Cambridge, MA - My neighbor in Cambridge was a very quiet guy who turned his considerable intellect towards the psychology of children and childhood. Who, except his intimates, knew that Ed Mason possessed a kinetic imagination — an imagination that takes the viewer by the hand, inviting him or her down the same rabbit hole that Alice discovered in Lewis Carroll’s curried prose? Ordinary things photographed and then doctored with photo-shop revealed to Ed, and through his artist’s eye to us, engaging qualities that a quick glance would never credit. Take an ordinary table and chairs patio set in that cream colored plastic which appeared everywhere about last mid-century to announce a new middle-class leisure style. Then, tip up the chairs around the table as though they’re nesting decorously for the night or a weekend away. This set-up was apparently … [Read more...] about Ed Mason at Cambridge’s La Capelli Salon
Exhibits
Shari Rubeck’s “Being Human” at The Hallway Gallery
By Lindsey Davis Jamaica Plain, MA - Shari Rubeck uses her work to reveal interpretations of the human psyche — she visualizes feelings and emotions by embodying them in a single figure against a simple background. Her new show at The Hallway Gallery, in Jamaica Plain, Mass., “Being Human,” is comprised of 14 works that focus on her fascination with animals, combining elements of rabbits and rams with the human figure as a way of assigning attributes and drawing comparisons. One of the works on view is titled “Long Hare,” painted in 2011. It shows a woman’s figure in the middle of an empty textured background painted a green/brown color. She’s laying sideways without any real concern for gravity, in a simple black dress and with an oversized rabbit’s head instead of a human one, the long bunny ears transformed into white thread that squiggles down to the front of the canvas. Shari … [Read more...] about Shari Rubeck’s “Being Human” at The Hallway Gallery
Karen Meninno: Sculpture Remix at Kingston Gallery
By Meredith Cutler Boston, MA- Boston-area artist Karen Meninno opens her third solo show at the Kingston Gallery this week — but, in many aspects, the show represents a “first” for this New Delhi born, London-bred sculptor. In a marked departure from the physically ornate, anthropomorphic sculptures we’ve seen previously from Meninno, “Sculpture Remix” cleanly transports a dolled-up, cast-plaster model influenced by cities, both real and imagined, into the 2-D realm as coolly kaleidoscopic digital C-prints and glossy scrolls of custom-printed wallpaper. I caught up with Meninno via email just after the show’s installation. Here’s what she has to say about her shift between worlds. WHAT LED YOU TO PURSUE A TWO-DIMENSIONAL INTERPRETATION OF YOUR SCULPTURE? The real impetus behind presenting my sculptures as 2-D manipulated images was to engage viewers in 3-D art. I want to … [Read more...] about Karen Meninno: Sculpture Remix at Kingston Gallery
The Wheaton Biennial: Drawing Out of Bounds at Wheaton College
By Elizabeth Michelman Norton, MA- This wide-ranging drawing exhibition at Wheaton College, located 30 miles south of Boston, was juried by Judith Tannenbaum, the Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art at the RISD Museum of Art. Sensitively mounted by Gallery Director Michele L’Heureux, the 54 diverse works represent both regional and national trends in what can currently be called “drawing.” Included are 30 New England artists (22 from Massachusetts), another nine from New York and Illinois, and the rest from a smattering of Midwestern and Western states as well as France. With the future of Boston’s own biennial Drawing Show now uncertain, Wheaton’s exhibition, if repeated, may fill an important regional gap. Speaking to a crowd of students and visitors in her gallery talk, Tannenbaum emphasized a focus on qualities rather than “quality.” Noting that every selection will … [Read more...] about The Wheaton Biennial: Drawing Out of Bounds at Wheaton College
Alexandra Rozenman’s “Transplanted” at the Multicultural Arts Center
By Lindsey Davis East Cambridge, MA – Alexandra Rozenman’s show “Transplanted” works to do just that — move you from this world into another, one with more hope, less worry, and more wonder. Scenes of bliss simply painted, the 11 large works hang in the Multicultural Arts Center’s Upper Gallery like 11 rectangular portals, most inspired by famous hands from art history. In “Moving in with Breugel,” Alexandra’s world of painting clashes at a diagonal with the worlds created by the Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. She casts green grass against white snow that’s complete with the hunters and their dogs from Bruegel’s 1565 painting, “The Return of the Hunters.” “Moving with Turner to Brooklyn” shows a girl facing a city with paint dripping all around her — a fantasized version of J.M.W. Turner’s characteristic melting, blended use of color. It’s a reinterpretation of … [Read more...] about Alexandra Rozenman’s “Transplanted” at the Multicultural Arts Center
Ruth Segaloff: Lest We Forget at Galatea Fine Art
By Lindsey Davis Boston, MA - Ruth Segaloff’s newest work comprises “Lest We Forget,” an exhibition at Galatea Fine Art on Harrison Avenue in Boston on view until the end of March. A collection of collaged conceptual pieces, the show is represented by 16 works that were mostly created especially for this exhibit and nine of which were made within the last year. “My works are intended to evoke memories, beliefs and actions,” Segaloff said. “Sometimes I actually want to provoke the observer into a greater self examination that requires a response, or at the very least, begins the conversation.” The exhibit is titled “Lest We Forget,” after one of Segaloff’s earlier pieces of the same name, that’s currently on view as part of the “Pursuing Justice Through Art” exhibition at the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell through April 20. The artwork has a worn white baby shoe at the … [Read more...] about Ruth Segaloff: Lest We Forget at Galatea Fine Art