The 30-foot-long wall of Stephen LaPierre’s Rocky Neck studio is covered from top to bottom with paintings of clowns. LaPierre’s oldest clown painting, the impetus for this wacky yet cerebral series, hangs at the room’s far end. Featuring a low-lit bar filled with face-painted patrons, the piece is darker and cruder than its more contemporary companions. Visitors to LaPierre’s studio would be hard-pressed not to notice another stark difference between “Clowns at the Bar” and the other works surrounding it: these clowns’ eyes look at one another, or the beers in their hands, rather than into the screens of cellphones. The latter such paintings form the bulk of LaPierre’s clown collection, several of which will be on view from April 1 until June 2 in a show called “Cirque du LaPierre” at Groton School’s de Menil Gallery. Works in the collection primarily feature brightly-clothed clowns … [Read more...] about THE ART OF THE CLOWN

For the second-ever exhibition in their newly constructed Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center in downtown Waterville, Maine, the Colby College Museum of Art is showcasing the thought- provoking interplay between the thematically connected work of two otherwise utterly distinct artists. This exhibition, “Ashley Bryan/Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms” — guest curated by Jennifer R. Gross, the inaugural executive director of the Hauser & Wirth Institute and founding director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design — brings together these two extraordinary artists for a fascinating look at their dynamic creative pursuits. “This exhibition introduces Wilson to Maine audiences,” stated Gross, “and offers a new perspective on Bryan, an artist who was beloved for his children’s books but is insufficiently … [Read more...] about WILSON’S INSPIRED WORKS AT COLBY

Kelly Slater is an artist that I have known for a number of years, mostly from my years at Atlantic Works Gallery in East Boston, when our memberships overlapped. I have watched Slater’s work go from tender, timid renderings to powerful, contrasted, energetic and unselfconscious telepathic conversations with trees and wooded environments. When I asked her what contributed to her outburst of confidence, she stated that over time she had connected to a vortex of inner awakenings, spawned by honing her skills and interacting with a greater artistic collective community. Community came in the form of studying printmaking with Selma Bromberg at the Center for Adult Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There, Slater was encouraged to explore and experiment. Within our conversation, it occurred to me that she opened to the intensity of the natural world, strangely, by abandoning it … [Read more...] about A STRONG, DREAMLIKE INTENSITY

While most of New England waits for spring, few are more eager for the first blossoms of the season as Robin Reynolds, whose floral paintings of her North Brookfield, Massachusetts garden can be seen in upcoming months at galleries throughout the region, including The Legacy Collection at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville, Vermont, The Cynthia Winings, G. Watson and George Marshall Store galleries in Maine, group shows at Soprafina Gallery in Boston, CUSP Gallery in Newport, Rhode Island, and ArtsWorcester and The White Room in Worcester, Massachusetts, where her work can be seen on an ongoing basis at BirchTree Bread Company in the city’s Canal District. Artscope Magazine’s managing editor Brian Goslow talked with Reynolds at the opening reception for her “Interlaced” exhibition she shared with Emily Sandagata at the Worcester Center for Crafts (which closes on March 4) and … [Read more...] about ROBIN REYNOLDS