As an older generation of trendsetters thins out, artists who have defied conventional classifications come to the forefront. One such person is Vermont artist Fran Bull, a participant in the Photorealist movement through the early 1980s who exhibited at the Louis Meisel Gallery in New York City. Her painstaking acrylics and watercolors embellished found images of zebras, storks and monarch butterflies in watery reflections. But Bull wasn’t content with mastery of a single style. In her late 40s, she left the New York fast track for a more personal, multidisciplinary journey. From then on, Bull’s painting style expanded into exuberant fluid abstraction on paper and canvas, painted plaster reliefs, sculpture and multi-room installations, all enriched with poetry and philosophy. Later in life, her large-scale etchings, paintings and dimensional work started traveling widely to galleries … [Read more...] about LEAVING LOCKDOWN BEHIND: FRAN BULL’S MILLION LINE ODYSSEY AT MITCHELL • GIDDINGS
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MANY LAYERS OF REWARD AT THE FULLER: MCCALL’S BUTTONS ON! INSPIRES CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
In the Spring of 2021, Beth C. McLaughlin, Artistic Director and Chief Curator of the Fuller Craft Museum, responded to an invitation from Beau McCall for a virtual studio visit. In the foreword to the museum’s “Beau McCall: Buttons On!” exhibition catalog, McLaughlin writes that McCall’s story was a great one and as a result, she decided that “a retrospective of this remarkable artist” should happen. She describes her fascination with McCall’s button-centric world of creation, her easy interactions with his partner and curator Peter “Souleo” Wright and the three years of joy and teamwork since their first meeting that made this exhibit happen. When you go, let the exhibit take over your senses, enjoy the greatest collection of buttons that you could ever imagine and how they are placed on fashion and object art. Don’t overlook the “Buttons On! Catalog,” which is rich with essays by 11 … [Read more...] about MANY LAYERS OF REWARD AT THE FULLER: MCCALL’S BUTTONS ON! INSPIRES CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
REINVENTING WINTER: PROVINCETOWN GALLERIES TEAM UP AT MARY HEATON VORSE HOUSE
Should you go to the Mary Heaton Vorse House for the exhibition of art from 12 galleries that are members of the Provincetown Art Gallery Association (PAGA), you will have the rare experience of seeing art in an impeccably restored 18th century home. Run by the Provincetown Arts Society (PAS), the house has been exhibiting art, hosting films and offering residencies to artists of any kind since 2020. The Society’s director, Gene Tartaglia, said that the Provincetown Arts Society supports the existing arts in Provincetown, and gives space for the community to gather, celebrate and talk about art in many forms. “The fiscal sponsor is the St. Joseph’s Art Society Foundation in San Francisco that was founded by Ken Fulk, who was approached by the granddaughters of Mary Heaton Vorse who wanted to sell him the home because they felt he’d be a good guardian,” by keeping it intact, restoring … [Read more...] about REINVENTING WINTER: PROVINCETOWN GALLERIES TEAM UP AT MARY HEATON VORSE HOUSE
A SHOW OF CONSISTENCY AT THE ART COMPLEX: REFRESHING TAKES AT DAA EXHIBITION
A juried art exhibition is always a time of great excitement for local artists. Who was accepted? Who won the prize money? The 51st “Annual Winter Juried Show” of the Duxbury Art Association (DAA) is no exception, and the DAA is fortunate to be able to display the chosen art in the handsome Art Complex Museum. Jurors Patricia Walsh, Laura Barletta and Carl Lopes chose art that ranges from abstraction to realism across a wide range of media including an “alternative materials” category. Marcia Ballou’s “Nest,” First Place winner in this category, uses painted fabrics and cotton threads to create a vibrant floral garden filled with daisies, asters and zinnias. The detail of cut clipped and stitched materials is amazing. By grouping flowers by color and keeping the stems vertical, she unites dozens of tiny florets in a unified vision. I recognize Ballou’s style from other juried shows; … [Read more...] about A SHOW OF CONSISTENCY AT THE ART COMPLEX: REFRESHING TAKES AT DAA EXHIBITION
A CREATIVE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS: FREEDOM BAIRD NURTURES AI & ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Freedom Baird is the vortex of her ideas. They are a constant flow of conceptual strings of consciousness. The manifestation of these ideas take form in the manner of the Magician in the Tarot deck; those which start as brilliant sparks in the mind’s eye manifest in varying installations and art pieces, crystallizing and forming as an act of communication. At the Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord, Massachusetts, curator Stephanie Marlin-Curiel is collaborating with educator Dr. Linda Booth Sweeney to present “Tapped In,” a pairing of eight scientists in the field of global warming, with eight artists. “The inspiration for this project,” Marlin-Curiel writes, “stems from a systemic understanding of climate change mitigation commonly expressed through the Bathtub metaphor. Originated by MIT Professor John Sterman and popularized by Al Gore through the Climate Reality Project and … [Read more...] about A CREATIVE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS: FREEDOM BAIRD NURTURES AI & ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
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