“Bag lady, you gon' hurt your back / Dragging all them bags like that / I guess nobody ever told you / All you must hold on to / Is you, is you, is you” — Erykah Badu, “Bag Lady” My hand reaches for my shoulders. Sure, I often have a tote bag on one side, a backpack, or if I am trying to look sophisticated, a handbag like the movie depictions of 20-something women in the workforce, but I found out that this area of my body carries my stress, anxiety and socio-political cargo. Although it is important to mention that I am not first-generation, I understand when the parasympathetic system is out of whack from the invisible burdens we carry. Every time I describe this, I think of Ernie Barnes’s “Miss America” with elongated limbs, carrying buckets with an unknown substance, an uneven stride into a forced contrapposto; for a while, she was the profile image of “Elbow Grease,” an Instagram … [Read more...] about BRANCHING OUT INTO SCULPTURE: JO NANAJIAN, KLEDIA SPIRO & FEDA EID’S HEAVY LOAD
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A WEALTH OF SKILL AND BREADTH OF VISION: GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS EXPLORES 2023 NEW ENGLAND
In the days before instamatic and digital cameras, realist paintings were timeless documents of life throughout the decades and centuries. Now, as our aging cities and landmarks continue aging and decaying, and major atmospheric storms change our coastlines and landscapes without warning, the eyes of the artists in the “2023 New England Regional Juried Exhibition” at the Guild of Boston Artists serve to give us a detailed look at the effect of those changes as well as current household items, clothing and buildings in our region that may not look the same even 10 years from now. This year’s show, “Bringing together the work of promising students, emerging and early career artists, as well as pieces from established professionals, the show is a celebration of the wealth of skill and breadth of vision in representational art across the region,” mainly features oil paintings and was juried … [Read more...] about A WEALTH OF SKILL AND BREADTH OF VISION: GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS EXPLORES 2023 NEW ENGLAND
EXQUISITELY IMPERFECT CONDUITS: COLODZIN’S EMBODIED COLLAGES AT COPLEY SOCIETY
Modern collage, invented by George Braque, Pablo Picasso and others in the early 20th century, lives on today in the exhibition “Embodied” by Robin Colodzin at the famous Copley Society of Art in Boston. Founded in 1879, the Copley Society has long been the bastion of painting in the romantic realism tradition, and many of its artist-founders are honored as America’s great painters. In an effort to be more contemporary, the Copley selection committee is now including experimental artists who deal in the latest, hottest social problems and that is to be commended. However, deciding which experimental artists will be the next “great artists” is a tricky question and the solo exhibition of Colodzin makes the case that emerging artists can be both brilliant and also falter in their visions. Her artistic conceptual goal, expressed in her press release, is in line with women’s body imagery … [Read more...] about EXQUISITELY IMPERFECT CONDUITS: COLODZIN’S EMBODIED COLLAGES AT COPLEY SOCIETY
HELL BENT TO KICK THE EDGES: CHELSEA ELLIS AND TODD WATTS AT MMPA PORTLAND
When I say, “photographic arts,” what or who comes to mind? Annie Leibovitz? Ansel Adams? Alfred Stieglitz? Richard Avedon? Different genres. Different styles. Different expressions. The two artists who are currently exhibiting works at the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts in Portland are creating work that has osmosed into a totally different expression of the genre. They are photographers, no doubt, and both have interest in sculpture. But all assumptions end there. Todd Watts works are represented in major museum collections — including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fogg Museum and Yale University Art Gallery. In his early days in art school, his interest was sculpture. He didn’t own a camera until after he graduated, and he said that he’s been learning photography ever since. He began making photos — he insists that he doesn’t take photos, he … [Read more...] about HELL BENT TO KICK THE EDGES: CHELSEA ELLIS AND TODD WATTS AT MMPA PORTLAND
A LIFETIME OF WORKS AT THE CLARK: MUNCH’S CONTRAST OF EXUBERANCE AND MELANCHOLY
At the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts is a comprehensive exhibition that includes Edvard Munch’s earthbound paintings, spanning decades. The paintings are energetic, reading as an exploratory of the artist’s emotional life through his observation of the natural world. This important exhibition was carefully and mindfully curated by Jay A. Clarke from the Art Institute of Chicago; Trine Otte Bak Nielsen, curator from Munchmuseet, and Jill Lloyd, an independent curator, drawing upon knowledge of Munch’s early life of emotional upheaval, loss and confusion. The curators reveal that the immersion of the artist into the natural world magnetized him out of his own whirlpool of an emotional unconsciousness into one of self-realization. The artist was able to step outside the bondage of the miasma of his early life and join his emotional world with the workings of the … [Read more...] about A LIFETIME OF WORKS AT THE CLARK: MUNCH’S CONTRAST OF EXUBERANCE AND MELANCHOLY
SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH ART: PAUL S. BRIGGS NOT-SO-HIDDEN MESSAGES AT LACOSTE
Paul Briggs’s ceramic work is a conversation between medium and artist resulting in contemplative objects with healing qualities. Briggs purposefully infuses his clay works with metaphors and meanings. Throughout his life journey as a young athlete, undergraduate student, and ultimately, an artist, clay has always accompanied him. Since his early days attending summer camps, Briggs’s talent and passion for this type of craftsmanship have never left his side. Eventually, he wholeheartedly embraced his artistic career, becoming a mentor, lecturer, speaker, role model, successful artist and a scholar, as well as a beloved teacher. As a ceramic artist, Briggs goes beyond manipulating clay; he engages in dialogue and interactions with the material, contemplating its qualities and focusing on its manifestation. By approaching clay as a meditative exercise, Briggs merges his ideals and … [Read more...] about SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH ART: PAUL S. BRIGGS NOT-SO-HIDDEN MESSAGES AT LACOSTE