For the celebration of the Berta Walker Gallery’s 35th anniversary, Walker herself — wearing a long good luck dress of green, “which is the heart chakra, love,” bedecked in the center with a big purple leaf and peacock blue feathers, “which is to give me voice,” along with a gold necklace supposed to create healing, a silver mandala necklace, and “energy balancing earrings” on her still beautiful, chiseled face topped with red hair — graces me with tales of her journey and her philosophy of life and art. JOURNEY Berta Walker has lived with art since childhood in New York’s Forest Hills, where her mother, a dancer, pianist and painter, and her father, a jeweler and distinguished art maven and dealer, ran an art gallery in Manhattan. Not only did they put Marsden Hartley on the map, but heading to Provincetown in summers, they, and Berta (and her sisters) hung out with everyone in … [Read more...] about PRESERVING A LEGACY: UNSINKABLE BERTA WALKER, A LIGHT IN THE ART WORLD
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THE WIDER WORLD OF SCRIMSHAW: COURTNEY M. LEONARD BREACHES NEW BEDFORD WHALING HISTORY
Fascinating! Stunning! Eye-Opener! It has been years since I visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum and I was “blown out of the water!” to use an old maritime cliché. Two new exhibits, Courtney M. Leonard’s “BREACH: Logbook 24 | Scrimshaw” and the “The Wider World of Scrimshaw” were the reason for my visit, but it was the main collection itself that immediately intrigued me. Visitors are greeted by two enormous whale skeletons hanging ominously overhead, suspended from the ceiling. If those giant bones don’t get your attention, underneath them is a strange large pink object about five feet high with round cylindric openings pointing in every direction. It is a plastic replica of a real blue whale heart, made in Australia, weighing 660 pounds, installed in 2018. If your museum is housed in a set of small rooms in a small building, make every wall-inch count. Pulling myself away … [Read more...] about THE WIDER WORLD OF SCRIMSHAW: COURTNEY M. LEONARD BREACHES NEW BEDFORD WHALING HISTORY
CLEAR ABSTRACTION: PATRICK MCCAY’S MODERN LESSONS AT THE WHISTLER
Named after one of his college courses, “Patrick McCay: Explore, Exploit, Express: A Thematic Retrospective,” on view at the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts through August 3, also features the work of three of McCay’s past students: David Drinon, Suzanne Hodge and Lucas Grondin. He’s currently a professor at the Institute of Art and Design at New England College of Henniker, New Hampshire. While the exhibition looks at the Irish-born, Scottish-American artist’s work of over 30 years, the show is intended to look at his various styles of paintings during that period as opposed to his tenure as an artist. Displayed in the museum’s Parker Gallery (which also includes an ongoing display of works by Lowell Art Association artists), the show is hung in a way that flows perfectly through those styles, with, the show’s press material suggests, a tip of the hat … [Read more...] about CLEAR ABSTRACTION: PATRICK MCCAY’S MODERN LESSONS AT THE WHISTLER
AN ALTERNATIVE CELEBRATION: RHODE ISLAND’S HERA GALLERY TURNS 50
The Hera Educational Foundation and Gallery in Wakefield, Rhode Island, is celebrating 50 years of providing an alternate exhibition space, initially for women, now for all artists at all stages of their careers. “Past and Present” opened on June 22 with a parade and reception. The call went out to their 175 current or past members, and 34 works were submitted. They create a dazzling wide-ranging display of media by artists with deep commitment to their artist voices. Hera’s founding context in 1974 was that art studio classes, galleries and museums were all run by men, where maybe one or two women would be added to a class or gallery roster. Women with deep commitment to their art practices and advanced art degrees rarely had gallery options. It is noteworthy that after a long inception of women imagining, founding and running Hera through volunteering and donations, the … [Read more...] about AN ALTERNATIVE CELEBRATION: RHODE ISLAND’S HERA GALLERY TURNS 50
NEW ENGLAND NOW AT THE SHELBURNE
“New England Now: Strange States” is the third exhibition in a series centered on our region as seen, interpreted, remembered and reimagined in the works of 12 artists, whether they be generations-local or new to this place we call home. Carolyn Bauer, who has curated all three shows, reminds us that the 2018 show elaborated on the way we define our land, and the 2021 show focused on the people that signify the character of the New Englander. This show delves deeper into identities — real, imagined, free or constrained, solidified or fluid, assertive or unsure, but always unique. The Diana and John Colgate Gallery space is transformed into a striking deep-grey expanse that recedes visually and brings to the forefront the works on display. The introductory text for “Strange States” suggests to the visitor that New England has historic literary traditions and figures that … [Read more...] about NEW ENGLAND NOW AT THE SHELBURNE
ACT OF TRANSPARENCY IN WELLFLEET: NEW ENGLAND WAX PROMOTES INTEREST IN ENCAUSTIC ARTS
In the New England Wax exhibition “Transparency,” on view at Wellfleet Preservation Hall from May 21 to June 27, encaustic, wax is employed in many different media combinations to explore diverse concepts of what compromises art today. An art technique most famous for its role in the Fayum Egyptian funerary portraits of 100-300 AD, encaustic has been thor- oughly modernized. With subjects that range from abstract to realism, birds to beaches and swirly lines to geometric shapes, a look at “Transparency” should convince anyone that encaustic deserves one’s attention for its beauty and creativity that uses light, texture, form and color. Some of the exhibiting artists work to exploit the inherent luminosity of the medium. Janet Lesniak’s “Sea Sky,” shows off the depths of the materials to evoke a frothy blue water and complex cloud sky. Her “Sand.Sea.Sky.” also works the medium to great … [Read more...] about ACT OF TRANSPARENCY IN WELLFLEET: NEW ENGLAND WAX PROMOTES INTEREST IN ENCAUSTIC ARTS