Nina Simone would likely be happy to know that her 1965 song, “Feeling Good,” along with other songs from that time period, inspired the Hood Museum of Art’s current exhibition “And I’m Feeling Good: Relaxation and Resistance.” Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, on the campus of Dartmouth College, the museum drew from its expansive collection of photographs to showcase photography that celebrates Black lives and community along with simple moments of beauty, and the importance of being positive and joyful. Songs performed during the Civil Rights Movement inspired Black Americans to have hope and to embrace the happy moments in their lives. The songs underscore the importance of maintaining positive feelings about life, no matter the circumstances and challenges. It’s no wonder they inspired photographers Gordon Parks, Kwame Brathwaite, Darryl DeAngelo Terrell and Chester Higgins, whose … [Read more...] about POSITIVE AND JOYFUL PHOTOGRAPHY: EVERYDAY BLACK LIVES CELEBRATED AT DARTMOUTH
Artscope Issues
WCMA’S POWERFUL EMANCIPATION PROJECTL: A HISTORICAL & CONTEMPORARY LOOK BACK — AND FORWARD
The range and depth of experience represented in “Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation” at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is a vortex arrived to by the layers of observation and research of the curators and represented artists in this expansive exhibition. As the 160th anniversary of the “Emancipation Proclamation” has just past us in 2023, the exhibition examines how emancipation has evolved through a multi-dimensional, cyclical timeline and how its manifestation may appear in the future. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas and the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Co-curators Maggie Adler, Curator of Paintings, Sculpture and Works on Paper at the Carter, and Maurita Poole, Executive Director of the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University have chosen seven … [Read more...] about WCMA’S POWERFUL EMANCIPATION PROJECTL: A HISTORICAL & CONTEMPORARY LOOK BACK — AND FORWARD
A SHARED FUTURE AT PEM: OUR TIME ON EARTH SHOW AIMS TO SPARK ACTION
It is not until I return back to the layers of tree bark that frame the entrance to “Our Time on Earth” that I am bold enough to put my nose to it and inhale deeply. My suspicions are confirmed: it smells delicious, like sweet amber and something quietly sharp. I think immediately of how I want to wear it—to bottle it up — to be able to envelop myself in it any time I want. The thought is followed by a series of questions, all spurred by the very exhibit the bark marks the entrance to. Why do I want to “own” this scent? Where does that impulse come from? What if I could find satisfaction in the simple miracle of smelling it here, now? This is how I know the exhibition has done its job. I have already been changed. Organized by London’s Barbican Centre and curated by Luke Kemp alongside guest curators Caroline Till and Kate Franklin of Franklin Till, “Our Time on Earth” makes its United … [Read more...] about A SHARED FUTURE AT PEM: OUR TIME ON EARTH SHOW AIMS TO SPARK ACTION
SOARING SOLILOQUIES OF HOME: DINA NAZMI KHORCHID’S PALESTINIAN-ROOTED ART
Pigeons, a common name for gray doves, symbolizes peace. They often roam urban epicenters and make home wherever they land. The resilience of their spirit is often overlooked because we see them often. Dina Nazmi Khorchid’s textile and installation work draws from the metaphor of the pigeon to talk about her migration story. Khorchid is like what surrealistic blues poet aja monet calls “born of distance between now and then” as the sediments of inherited trauma and migratory patterns influence Khorchid. She migrated from Lebanon to the United Arab Emirates then Lebanon, again, and then the United States. While her story is deeply personal, it connects to a broader narrative of her Palestinian culture. I wish we did not have to admire her for her strength because strength is a burden. Her vulnerability is on display through her recent pigeon series. Pigeons started appearing in her work … [Read more...] about SOARING SOLILOQUIES OF HOME: DINA NAZMI KHORCHID’S PALESTINIAN-ROOTED ART
A WELL-DESIGNED CAREER: GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS CELEBRATES “FRITZ” KUBITZ
Frederick “Fritz” Kubitz’s retrospective exhibition of oil paintings, “All About Boston,” will take place at the Guild of Boston Artists in their Newbury Street gallery, concurrent with the Boston Marathon and One Boston Day on April 15. Kubitz is also a distinguished architect who trained at MIT and worked for the renowned Eero Saarinen, and other firms, and then ultimately for himself. He was involved in the design of many institutional structures such as the avantgarde TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport (recently repurposed into a hotel), the American Embassy in London, buildings at Harvard and Tufts universities and the remodeling of Fenway Theater/Biltmore Hotel into the Berklee College of Music — as well as the designs of airports such as Dulles and Logan. He talked about the latter as career high points because of the excite- ment of interacting with the president of … [Read more...] about A WELL-DESIGNED CAREER: GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS CELEBRATES “FRITZ” KUBITZ
CORNERED: MIRA CANTOR
Mira Cantor has taught color theory, drawing and painting for 40 years, 25 of them as a tenured professor in the Art and Architecture Department at Northeastern University. She has always been driven to learn as well as to teach through her art. Artscope Magazine’s Elizabeth Michelman “Cornered” Cantor in her studio a month before her March 2024 exhibition at Boston’s Kingston Gallery to discuss the paintings and drawings she’d completed during her 2023 sabbatical. Cantor has spent the last 17 summers in County Clare, western Ireland, teaching an art semester abroad in the village of Ballyvaughan. She paints the world in a studio near the historical and geological refuge of The Burren, on the lip of the Atlantic Ocean. Over the years she has hiked the beaches, caves and riven pavements throughout this upthrust primeval seabed. From the eroding cliffs of its rolling limestone terrain, … [Read more...] about CORNERED: MIRA CANTOR