Artscope Magazine

New England's Culture Magazine

Artscope Magazine | May/June 2023

Subscribe to the Magazine

A vibrant, dynamic magazine with arts news, reviews and info you can use, delivered right to your door!

Subscribe now

Sign up for our Email Blasts!

Special Artscope updates in your inbox every two weeks!

Sign up

Artscope Issues

WELCOME May/June 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW

// May/June 2023, Welcome

by 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

// Capsule Previews, May/June 2023

by Brian Goslow

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?

// Editorials, May/June 2023

by Steve Sangapore

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

// Community, May/June 2023

by Ami Bennitt

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

CROSS-POLLINATION

// May/June 2023, Reviews

by Brian Goslow

The annual “Arts in Bloom” exhibition at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts (HCA) has been one of its landmark events since its debut in 2005. For its “18th Annual Arts in Bloom” exhibition, HCA asked Kaveh Mojtabai, Artscope Magazine’s Founder and Publisher, to serve as its juror. Entrants were asked to follow the theme of “shift” — “a slight change in position, direction or tendency” in submitting hanging 2D media and freestanding 3D artwork, while encouraging them to think beyond depicting only floral plants in their pieces. “We are constantly in transactions with beauty; experiment with techniques, colors, design and subject matter,” Mojtabai said, in explaining what he was looking for in reviewing the works for an exhibition in a facility that not only features a gallery, but a performance art space for dance, theater, spoken word and film, along with classrooms for a variety of … [Read more...] about CROSS-POLLINATION

UNITY EMBODIED

// May/June 2023, Reviews

by Hannah Carrigan

Most of the light that shines in a recently added atrium at Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) filters through an astonishing installation. Textured, sepia-toned and emblematic, the 6.5’ by 4’ flags that hang along the walls and from the ceiling of the space are representative of 188 countries. From afar, the works’ qualities (at once shining and fibrous; organic and fabricated) are hard to pin down. In fact, these flags’ primary material was sourced from almost as many nations as represented. They are each made of only three substances: Elmer’s glue, twine and human hair. Gu Wenda’s “United Nations,” on view at PEM through November 5, is an immersive exhibition rooted in some of the most pertinent themes in modern history. Identity, community, immigration, culture and diversity are all explored in this awe- inspiring exhibit. Using the dual symbolism of flags and human hair, the exhibition … [Read more...] about UNITY EMBODIED