COVER STORY ON! PUSHING BACK THE DARK DILLON GALLERY SOUTH SHORE ART CENTER 119 RIPLEY ROAD COHASSET, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH APRIL 8 by Beth Neville “On! Pushing Back the Dark,” the current exhibit at the Dillon Gallery of the South Shore Art Center, promises to be an exciting experience for visitors and the participating creative artists alike. With the gallery skylight covered over and windows shuttered with dark curtains, the hollow, flame-blown glass sculptures will glow in the dark as neon gas pulses and flickers back and forth inside the molten made structures. This reviewer visited the gallery two days before the show’s installation. “Pushing Back” co-curator, glass artist Chris Rifkin, and SSAC Director Patrice Maye were making a final roll call of participating artists, calculating “who is in” and “who is out” among 17 nationally known invited glass … [Read more...] about HANDLE WITH CARE: PUSHING BACK THE DARK AT SSAC
Issue Articles
BARBARA PEACOCK: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
12 FOR OUR 12TH BARBARA PEACOCK BARBARA PEACOCK: SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN BEDROOM AND HOMETOWN MAINE MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS. USM GLICKMAN LIBRARY 314 FOREST AVENUE PORTLAND, MAINE THROUGH MAY 19 FOR MORE INFORMATION: BARBARAPEACOCK.COM by Taryn Plumb She is the very image of a gypsy goddess: Spiraling dirty blonde hair, bra top and short shorts, draped atop a heap of blankets in the back of a pop-up camper, exhaling a willowy puff from a cigarette. Scattered around her: an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts, empty travel mugs and juice cans, an errant flip-flop, chili pepper string lights, drug paraphernalia. Her name is Jessica, and an accompanying statement to her portrait reflects the Milford, N.H. 18-year-old’s carefree spirit: “Sometimes life throws you in all sorts of directions, the most important part about life is to remember you are exactly … [Read more...] about BARBARA PEACOCK: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
KASEY DAVIS APPLEMAN: CONNECTING THROUGH COMPOSITION
12 FOR OUR 12TH KASEY APPLEMAN WORK ON VIEW IN: TIME MACHINES MARY COSGROVE DOLPHIN GALLERY WORCESTER STATE UNIVERSITY 486 CHANDLER STREET WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MARCH 8 SANCTUARY GALLERY 263, 263 PEARL STREET CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MARCH 17 FOR MORE INFORMATION: KASEYAPPLEMAN.COM by Brian Goslow For as long as she can recall, Kasey Davis Appleman has been, “a collector, altar-maker and memento keeper,” the origin of her assemblages and “poetry objects” harking back to the days when she’d decorate cigar boxes – an exercise, and perhaps, long-forgotten activity that lights up the imagination and memories of people who see, and fall in love with, her work. After earning her bachelor of fine art degree in painting and printmaking from Emmanuel College in Boston, she began transferring her collections onto canvas. “But I somehow felt … [Read more...] about KASEY DAVIS APPLEMAN: CONNECTING THROUGH COMPOSITION
MARDI GRAS INDIANS: A CAPTIVATING COLLABORATION
ROBERT FREEMAN AND MAX STERN: MARDI GRAS INDIANS ADELSON GALLERIES BOSTON 520 HARRISON AVENUE BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS MARCH 2 THROUGH APRIL 29 by Molly Hamill When I spoke to him, Bob Freeman was sitting on a bench in the sun outside a gallery in Los Angeles. Freeman, who taught drawing and painting at Harvard in the 1980s and ‘90s, and whose work has been collected by the likes of the Museum of Fine Arts, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and the National Center of Afro-American Artists, breaks new ground in “Mardi Gras Indians,” a joint show with photographer Max Stern on view at Adelson Galleries Boston from March 2 through April 29. Stern’s crisp, potent photographs explode with color, movement and exuberance — the images inspired Freeman, who has collected some of Stern’s more abstract work over the years. “When I saw some of Max’s photographs, I … [Read more...] about MARDI GRAS INDIANS: A CAPTIVATING COLLABORATION
KENTRIDGE’S UNIVERSAL ARCHIVE: CHALLENGING PERCEPTION
UNIVERSITY SPOTLIGHT WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: UNIVERSAL ARCHIVE FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM 1073 NORTH BENSON ROAD FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT by Kristin Nord For nearly 50 years, the brilliant South African artist William Kentridge has made printmaking a major part of his studio practice, producing more than 300 works that range from etching, drypoint and engraving to silkscreen, lithograph and linocut. It is 75 of the latter employed by the artist, used as illustrations for Norton Lectures that he delivered at Harvard in 2012, that form the traveling exhibition, “William Kentridge: Universal Archive,” arriving on March 1 at the Fairfield Museum of Art. The lectures, compiled and published as a book entitled, “Six Drawing Lessons,” begins with a meditation on Plato’s Cave and fans out in brilliant bursts to capture the artist’s thoughts on studio practice and the … [Read more...] about KENTRIDGE’S UNIVERSAL ARCHIVE: CHALLENGING PERCEPTION
SAMANTHA FIELDS: KEEPING US IN STITCHES
12 FOR OUR 12TH SAMANTHA FIELDS, WORK ON VIEW IN: STITCH: SYNTAX/ ACTION/REACTION NEW ART CENTER, 61 WASHINGTON PARK, NEWTON,MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MARCH 24 HARD: SUBVERSIVE REPRESENTATION UNIVERSITY HALLGALLERY UNIVERSITY HALL, UMASS BOSTON, UNIVERSITY DRIVE NORTH, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MARCH 9 LINEPLAY: TAUT/SLACK CHILDREN’S MUSEUM BOSTON, 308 CONGRESS STREET, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH MARCH 31 by Elizabeth Michelman In her quest to understand the politics of fabric and fiber in the lives of women, sculptor Samantha Fields has already mastered (and teaches, along with color theory) traditions of weaving, stitchery, knitting, crocheting, beading and embroidery. Last summer, supported in industrial glazing and ceramic technique at the Kohler Art Center residency, she reproduced scores of table legs, chair backs, and oddly shaped finials in glossy bathroom … [Read more...] about SAMANTHA FIELDS: KEEPING US IN STITCHES