Sailors, swimmers, rowers, divers, fishers, snorkelers and surfers stare into the watery depths, dreaming, struggling, tossing and rolling on the surf. Who has not spent a summer day floating on the blue and green, diving down to see the sandy bottom, the crabs, and the watergrass? Michael Eder is a painter of water in all its strange shapes. Look down into water’s mystical depths. See the sunshine through the water. Look deeper, deeper down, past the reflections of sky and sand, shoreline rocks; down past the seaweed, the crabs, the wading birds, the shells and the driftwood bits. Michael Eder, painter of water, takes us down into the deep sea. Sometimes the sea thickens with ice flows. Sometimes it churns with stormy gales and foam and flotsam. Sometimes sea creatures rise to the surface, flickering with gold flecks in the sunlight. Sometimes we dive so deep the water is … [Read more...] about A PAINTER OF WATER: EDER’S LARGE ABSTRACT CANVASES HEAD TO HALLSPACE
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A GLOW FROM WITHIN: DIANNA VOSBURG’S VISUAL COMPLEXITY AT KINGSTON
Dianna Vosburg’s studio is gently lit by diffused sunlight filtering down from old mill-building style windows. The eye wanders from a shelf of books to racks of canvas yet-to-be painted; on the far wall is a mysterious source of light — a row of oil paintings that seem to glow from within. Whether it be points of light peeking through writhing fabric or a vibrant cosmic glow — Vosburg’s artwork has an eye-catching visual complexity and depth that is matched by the concepts behind her work. Soon to be on display at Kingston Gallery in Boston from March 30 through May 1, the “Arrival” series takes ideas of revelation and revolution and abstracts them in a way that bridges the gap between the physical and conceptual. Vosburg is fascinated by how a painting on canvas can reflect the human experience back on the viewer. “A painting recapitulates our condition,” she said. “Because it is … [Read more...] about A GLOW FROM WITHIN: DIANNA VOSBURG’S VISUAL COMPLEXITY AT KINGSTON
MORE THAN WORDS: FOUNTAIN STREET’S INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SHOWCASE
In the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babel, the Hebrew God punishes proud humans who build to the heavens, scattering and cursing his would-be rivals to chatter henceforth in a welter of tongues. Modern linguistics takes the more appreciative view that evolution bestows on our species a chameleon-like capacity for languages. We are born into language with a brain equipped to learn it, and each child matures within a particular culture through the medium of its language. “Beyond Words,” a survey of visual art engaged with language, gathers 35 works in many media by both local and international artists at Boston’s Fountain Street Gallery, on view through March 27. Juror Gabriel Sosa, who teaches “Con(text)ualized Drawing” at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, wisely resists a Western-centric emphasis on written “text.” He delivers an inclusive overview of the diverse ways language … [Read more...] about MORE THAN WORDS: FOUNTAIN STREET’S INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SHOWCASE
HAVE CAMERA, WILL TRAVEL: ARMSTRONG, STUDENTS REUNITE ON FITCHBURG WALLS
There are few things in life that photographer Frank ArmstronglovesmorethanheadingoutfromhisWestBoylston, Massachusetts home and driving the backroads of America at 35 miles an hour in search of a unique piece of Americana, drawn by the curiosity of what he might find. “Nothing else but curiosity. I’m just nosey,” said Armstrong prior to the opening of his “American Roadsides: Frank Armstrong’s Photographic Legacy” exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Museum. “I just like to get out there and see what’s there. Once I got out there, I found there was interesting stuff.” Featuring photographs taken between 2012 and 2021, and chosen by Fitchburg Art Museum Director Nick Capasso, who curated his portion of the exhibition, Armstrong shares the spotlight with six of his former students at Clark University (where he has taught analog and digital photography since 1999) and one from the … [Read more...] about HAVE CAMERA, WILL TRAVEL: ARMSTRONG, STUDENTS REUNITE ON FITCHBURG WALLS
LIGHT & LAYERS: SUSAN WAHLRAB’S “GARDEN IN THE FOREST” OFFERS RESPITE
Mark and Angie Setevdemio, founders of Creative Connections Gift Shop & Gallery in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, have known Vermont artist Susan Wahlrab since she was their art professor at Framingham State College 30 years ago. Fast forward, and they are now hosting her exhibition, “Garden in the Forest,” in their second-floor gallery space. “We’ve been admirers of Susan’s work since we were in college,” Mark said. “We were taken with her printmaking at the time, and later her dramatic use of light and overlapping swirls of color in layered concentric circles that use an unusual visual technique of varnished watercolor on archival clay board.” It’s a labor-intensive method that Wahlrab developed over time, requiring a good deal of patience, as layer upon layer dries before each subsequent layer is added. The result is engaging color and form on works that range in size … [Read more...] about LIGHT & LAYERS: SUSAN WAHLRAB’S “GARDEN IN THE FOREST” OFFERS RESPITE
“WE ARE STILL HERE”: VISIONARY, LIVING, IMPORTANT: INDIGENOUS AMERICAN ART
It is not just for the expression of an aesthetic and experience of lifeways, history and ceremony thousands of years old, nor because it connects us to, reminds us of the values of living in balance with each other and earth, but because it is a form of revolutionary resistance against the oppression of white supremacy, colonialism and fascism that Indigenous art is so important. As any native person from Wampanoag to Kwakiutl will tell you, “We are still here.” And they have been fighting the misapprehension that they are extinct, fighting to have their real history included in curricula, fighting to let it be known what genocides were done to them, culturally, linguistically and physically, by war, religion, forced education, economies, disease — and to let the rest of non-native America know that they have, in spite of all, persisted, and in some cases thrived, despite injustice, … [Read more...] about “WE ARE STILL HERE”: VISIONARY, LIVING, IMPORTANT: INDIGENOUS AMERICAN ART