Within every outdoor sculpture exhibition, there is a synchronic event happening — the merging of the sculpture itself with the venue that supports it. Usually, the natural environment is an integral part of the whole, lending itself to a conversation with the curated work within it. Sometimes thework is dispersed among city structures, creating focal points within an angular backdrop. Very often one finds the work embedded in nature. At The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts, trees and rolling lawns provide a gracious complement to the mostly large sculptures. Everything comes alive with the anticipation of what lies around any given corner. Founded in 1993, “SculptureNow” has had a long presence in the Berkshires and has had a symbiotic relationship with The Mount (Edith Wharton’s Home) for 10 years. Its collaboration with The Mount has given the event the ability to extend its reach in … [Read more...] about ENHANCED BY THE ENVIRONMENT: THE MOUNT’S SCULPTURENOW EXPANDS THE OUTSIDE EXPERIENCE
Artscope Issues
WELCOME July/August 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Summer already? I was in the final stages of preparations before we started on the production of this July/August 2023 issue of Artscope Magazine when I received an email from Jessica Roscio, the director and curator at The Danforth at Framingham State University, alerting me that its 2023 Annual Juried Show had been fully hung earlier than expected and that I could see it that afternoon. I had already started to write about the show from its well-compiled digital catalog and had found myself questioning my ability to give everyone a fair shake from that standpoint alone. I’ve learned — and I suspect those selected to jury exhibitions from digital submissions have as well — that regardless of how good of a job that artists have done photographing and documenting their work and entries, there is always going to be a few that steal your heart or underwhelm you on the digital screen that … [Read more...] about WELCOME July/August 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
WELCOME May/June 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Welcome to the 104th issue of Artscope Magazine. Now in our 18th year, we put this issue together knowing that it would be on display and available at Art Basel’s Collective Booth in Switzerland from June 15 through 18, representing not only ourselves as a publication at the international art fair, which features over 4000 artists from over 250 galleries from around the world, but all of the artists, galleries, museums and collectors covered in it. We first traveled to Basel in 2015. In reporting from that initial visit, Clara Rose Thornton wrote, “The tenuous process of creating art mirrors life’s path: projection, uncertainty, connection then disconnection, and navigating surprise. Thus, it makes sense to look to collections of contemporary art and individual pathways through the market as vibrant manifestations of a zeitgeist, the mime’s shadow we cannot see.” In recent months, … [Read more...] about WELCOME May/June 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
CAPSULE PREVIEWS: May/June 2023
Using the second chapter of author Lewis Carroll’s beloved “Alice in Wonderland” as a starting point, “because of its tumultuous activity, the frenzied movement of the figures of Alice and the crowds of birds, and the allure of the small sea created by her tears of anger and frustration,” Patty Adams created her “On the Strangest Sea: Alice and the Pool of Tears” series of paintings that will be on view from May 3 through 28 at Bromfield Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave., Boston, Massachusetts. “As I went on with this theme of chaos and new rules ordering her reality, the scene began to be infiltrated by the new social reality around me,” wrote Adams in her show statement, noting, “To add to the drama and meaning of the confrontation, I used devices from the practice of abstract painting.” “Soaring,” the third solo exhibition of works by Ani Babaian, will be on view from May 13 through May 26 … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS: May/June 2023
ART WITH A CAPITAL A?
It seems like every day I learn about a new development in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). As an artist, I’m most concerned about AI-generated “art” and its cultural implications. Some of the images I’ve seen are fascinating to be sure, and the complicated processes used to create these images are just as interesting (although admittedly, often beyond my technical understanding). Luckily, I don’t need to understand the precise processes behind AI-generated images to appreciate them. But are these images truly Art with a capital A? Or are they simply interesting visuals? Arriving at a conclusion may be difficult if we don’t all share the same, high-level definition of what art is. For ages people have struggled to define art. Eternally lacking objective and definitive boundaries, the art world continues to press on creating. When an artist pushes the “limits” of creation and … [Read more...] about ART WITH A CAPITAL A?
PRESERVATION ACT
In this series’ previous features, we saw the unlikely success of Humphreys Street Studios (Dorchester) and the Arts and Business Council’s preserving Western Avenue Studios in Lowell — two different solutions to one long-term, systemic problem: artist displacement. In this issue, we explore the impact of displacement on individual artists, artist communities and the regional arts ecosystem. We also note that arts displacement is a symptom of an insecure cultural ecosystem — and to solve it, we must address it holistically. Each part of the ecosystem — from higher education (MassArt, Berklee, BoCo, Lesley, RISD and others) to state/local government, corporations, foundations, museums, galleries, concert venues, theatres, publications — all stakeholders in our sector — must come together with one goal: to stop cultural displacement. We must preserve what we have, build more of what we … [Read more...] about PRESERVATION ACT