I recently visited photographer Amy Montali at her Providence, Rhode Island studio where we sat with each other discussing her art. She had purposefully arranged on a table between us a scale-model, or miniature version, of her upcoming solo exhibition, “Amy Montali: Thief,” that will be on view from November 9 through December 8 at the Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College. Using the scale-model as a tool, Montali was in the midst of making placement decisions among the included photographs, controlling sight lines in advance. Montali described her photography approach as aligned mostly with ways in which dance and theater are made, explaining that her work shares with these art forms a sensibility for isolating gestures, developing new phrases, as the method for building content. She mentioned an affinity for “Samuel Beckett, for the mix and cross play of epic, mundane and … [Read more...] about STOLEN MOMENTS AT RIC: AMY MONTALI’S MOVING IMAGES AT BANNISTER GALLERY

While featuring only 16 artworks, don’t let the size of the “Faith Ringgold: Freedom to Say What I Please” exhibition stop you from making a trip to the Worcester Art Museum during its six-month run. Each piece has its own intricate story and, judging by the audience reaction to its first month on exhibit, each person attending brings their own personal experience with Ringgold’s art to the space. The show was organized by Samantha Cataldo, the museum’s Associate Curator of Art, who built the show around Ringgold’s 1991 “Picasso’s Studio” narrative quilt from the museum’s collection. “WAM acquired the ‘Picasso’s Studio’ quilt soon after it was made,” Cataldo said. “It is a reflection on the museum at the time. Ten years later, other museums were catching up. They (WAM) had the good foresight to acquire it in the ‘90s.” The quilt hadn’t been exhibited at WAM for at least 10 … [Read more...] about STILL TEACHING: FAITH RINGGOLD’S LIFE STORIES IN WORCESTER

“Always Be Around: Corita Kent, Community, and Pedagogy,” on view at the Cantor Gallery in the Prior Performing Arts Center at the College of the Holy Cross, is a rare exhibition in which viewers are encouraged to become part of the presentation. While the artwork of Corita Kent is the main attraction, it’s the example she sets in encouraging everyone to make art, the creations of numerous artists who took that challenge as inspirationand the various participatory installations at the gallery that will hopefully leave a lasting impression. Corita Kent (1918-1986), also known as Sister Corita Kent during her time at Immaculate Heart College, is best known as “a pop artist, educator and social justice advocate” who created serigraph prints “combining imagery from advertising and newspapers with text ranging from bible verses to slogans, song lyrics and literature” according to the press … [Read more...] about THE JOY OF THE SPIRIT: CORITA KENT’S LEGACY SHARED AT HOLY CROSS

Nestled on North Adams’ Main Street, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ intimate exhibition space, Gallery 51, is lit brightly, with a combination of artificial and the natural light emanating from the large windows in the front of the building. For its current exhibition, Gallery Director Nicholas Rigger has overseen a deeply personal investigation into the language between six artists and their relationships with the natural world. “Reflecting Ecologies: Artists in Nature” reads as a medley of song, timeless and poignant. In the culture of climate change, these works are reminders of what it is we are protecting; the great diversity of life is deeply determined by every action and reaction of what is seen and unseen, whether we are aware of it or not. Upon walking into the Gallery 51 space, one is greeted by a wall-sized ink painting dispersed randomly with smaller paintings … [Read more...] about REFLECTING ECOLOGIES: EXPLORING THE NATURAL WORLD AT MCLA’S GALLERY 51

Imagine, if you will, having lived in the lands which are now America for thousands upon thousands of years. Then aliens from across the sea spread over your land like blood from a wound, bringing smallpox and cholera, diseases for which you have no resistance; cheating you out of your land, using it for settled agriculture as a commodity, not for sustainable self- sufficiency; bringing noisy and pol- luting railroads, telegraphs, mining, industrialization; destroying your game animals; coming after you with armies which commit atrocities; distorting your sophisticated spiritual beliefs with an overlay of their monotheistic, judgmental God, forcing you into their coercive schools; giving you no option but to join an extractive economy which is so far from your non-monetary, cooperative sharing way. How would you feel? How could you express that rage, sorrow, displacement as you become a … [Read more...] about A HARMOANIOUS FUSION: ENTRANCING MODERN NATIVE AMERICAN ART AT BATES

In celebration of their 75th year, the Boston Printmakers 2023 North American Print Biennial at Boston University’s 808 Gallery is a spectacular exhibition of the works of 121 contemporary printmakers and a wide variety of styles and techniques. Chosen by juror Elizabeth M. Rudy, the Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints at the Harvard Art Museums, the show is cleverly and beautifully curated in the newly renovated 808 Gallery, full of natural light and well- arranged space to interact with the works on display. An exhibition like this is always exciting, as there is no determined focus, though the curators do group works together that share thematic notes, and it is not defined by one specific printmaking process. The artworks are completely diverse in their size, use of color and dimension. Folks not familiar with the vast range of printmaking techniques, will wonder at … [Read more...] about BOSTON PRINTMAKERS AT 75: A BRILLIANT LEGACY CELEBRATED AT BU’S 808 GALLERY