There has always been a strong thread connecting the arts and social justice. From satire via the political cartoon to the enigmatic works that expose the human condition, the tradition of awareness through visual means has always been a strong branch of art history. It is no surprise, then, in these extremely volatile times, that volumes of current exhibitions are focused on the experience of racial injustice in this country. Several Berkshire museums are a vortex of visual information this summer. At the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, there is a monumental and comprehensive exhibition entitled “Imprinted:Illustrating Race” co-curated by Robyn Phillips-Pendleton, Professor of Visual Communications at the University of Delaware, whose extensive research motivated this collection, and Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the … [Read more...] about A TIMELY CALL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: ROCKWELL, WILLIAMS & CLARK SHOWS CELEBRATE IDENTITY
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TRULY EXCEPTIONAL: ARGHAVAN KHOSRAVI’S POTENT PAINTINGS AT THE CURRIER
What do you think is the average time museum-goers spend looking at art? A study in 2001 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art indicated the average time spent looking at great works of art was 27.2 seconds. Fast forward to 2017, when the Art Institute of Chicago conducted the same study and found an increase to 28.63 seconds. I predict a current exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, will skew the numbers of those studies. Upward. Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi’s first museum exhibition — at the Currier — won’t be her last museum show. She creates surrealist images that explore themes of exile, suppression and empowerment. Her enigmatic compositions center on female protagonists and allude to the restrictions of human rights, particularly those of women and immigrants. Usually, I have no problem describing a piece of art — and its medium or … [Read more...] about TRULY EXCEPTIONAL: ARGHAVAN KHOSRAVI’S POTENT PAINTINGS AT THE CURRIER
‘A PAINTING IS A PRACTICE’: KIRSTIN LAMB’S FLORAL REMIX AT THE TERZIAN GALLERY
Providence painter Kirstin Lamb’s early paintings were mushrooming accumulations of appropriated images referencing the history of domestic décor, portraiture and still life. Rendered in a style of artless caricature that masked her superior drafting skill, the encyclopedic scope of her imagery always suggested richer undercurrents. Lamb’s early paintings and drawings reflected the vanitas tradition of Dutch Master still life. She tossed in every kind of object or image that might grace a home or studio’s walls, complicating these collections with her own striped and dotted abstract designs and adding repetitive textilepatterns and floral displays copied from collected ephemera, historical compilations of home décor and references to domestic and feminine-identified crafts. These led to burgeoning 3D installations in the studio of individual works and groupings copied from her … [Read more...] about ‘A PAINTING IS A PRACTICE’: KIRSTIN LAMB’S FLORAL REMIX AT THE TERZIAN GALLERY
PRINT INSPIRING MORE PRINT: MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM HOSTS PNSNE PRINTMAKERS
“The Evocative Mark Twain Inspires the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England” is an immensely impressive exhibit featuring a wide breadth of accomplished veteran artists. Taking place at The Mark Twain House & Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut, the exhibition consists of 18 Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England (PNSNE) artists. Members of the PNSNE, an intimate, loosely organized group of 25 contemporary printmakers in total, each picked a quote from Mark Twain’s exhaustive writings and responded in their personal visual vocabulary. The witty Twain, born Samuel Clemens, was never one to disappoint with a sharp one-liner. Known for pioneering American letters, Twain also took an interest in visual aesthetics: “You know I like color and flummery and all such things — I was born red-headed — maybe that accounts for my passion for the gorgeous and ornamental.” (To … [Read more...] about PRINT INSPIRING MORE PRINT: MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM HOSTS PNSNE PRINTMAKERS
‘THE NEXUS OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT’: MCGOUGH LEADS FULLER CRAFT TO ITS NEXT CHAPTER
Inspired by Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Fuller Craft Museum, built in 1969, fits snugly into New England’s wooded landscape as an important note of modernist architecture that exists in harmony with nature. Its architectural signature is its twin-fountain reflecting poolabutting a large pond. Among other things, the pool centers the building’s design. Founder Myron Fuller’s intention was to create a place “to enrich the lives of the people of Brockton” which remains vital among Fuller Craft Museum’s core values today. The museum’s exterior and overall floor plan relates unpretentious serenity, calm precursor and framing environment to the “wow” factor audiences experience surrounded by the exquisite contemporary craft displayed. Each exhibition is innovatively curated and masterfully installed. The total experience makes this a South Shore gem that consistently … [Read more...] about ‘THE NEXUS OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT’: MCGOUGH LEADS FULLER CRAFT TO ITS NEXT CHAPTER
A BELATED CELEBRATION: ART COMPLEX 50+1 INCLUDES JACKIE REEVES’ BIG PLANS
Using blackout-curtain fabric as her canvas, things happen to the pigments on its surface which suggest skin, parchment, old maps, architectural paper; things happen to the paint because of the material: for instance, blackish acrylic tint blurs at the top — which leads artist Jackie Reeves onwards to expand the work’s realization. The material, process, and ideas evolve and change together, one inspiring the other, interacting with each other so that she is never quite sure what accident or intention will birth what result. The joy Reeves takes in her art is this kind of spontaneous discovery, of play. “It’s what I, and my siblings have been doing, since we were children in Canada; it’s what I know how to do best.” She likes not being in control. What results from this play is powerful and moving. Reeves, formally trained, and experientially self-taught as well, started out … [Read more...] about A BELATED CELEBRATION: ART COMPLEX 50+1 INCLUDES JACKIE REEVES’ BIG PLANS