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
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A HARMOANIOUS FUSION: ENTRANCING MODERN NATIVE AMERICAN ART AT BATES
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
BOSTON PRINTMAKERS AT 75: A BRILLIANT LEGACY CELEBRATED AT BU’S 808 GALLERY
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
UNPREDICTABLE VISUAL ERRORS: ALLISON TANENHAUS BRINGS HER GLITCHKRAFT TO SIMMONS COLLEGE
Allison Tanenhaus is here to make friends. Glitch artist extraordinaire, she collaborates with musicians, sculptors and other glitch and digital artists to bring immersive, dynamic and other worldly art to audiences around New England. What is glitch art? Several decades old, it began with artists experimenting with altering analog signals, manipulating them with magnets and messing with wiring to intentionally create unpredictable visual “errors.” Tanenhaus started to be curious about glitch art when her computer crashed, and jagged lines appeared on the screen. Her reaction was contradictory, “Gorgeous! Terrible!” (because her computer was broken), but then willed the screen to stay still so she could grab her camera. After a lifetime of searching for her visual medium, she had finally found it in a computer glitch. Tanenhaus began her artistic journey with words and humor, composing … [Read more...] about UNPREDICTABLE VISUAL ERRORS: ALLISON TANENHAUS BRINGS HER GLITCHKRAFT TO SIMMONS COLLEGE
BRANCHING OUT INTO SCULPTURE: JO NANAJIAN, KLEDIA SPIRO & FEDA EID’S HEAVY LOAD
“Bag lady, you gon' hurt your back / Dragging all them bags like that / I guess nobody ever told you / All you must hold on to / Is you, is you, is you” — Erykah Badu, “Bag Lady” My hand reaches for my shoulders. Sure, I often have a tote bag on one side, a backpack, or if I am trying to look sophisticated, a handbag like the movie depictions of 20-something women in the workforce, but I found out that this area of my body carries my stress, anxiety and socio-political cargo. Although it is important to mention that I am not first-generation, I understand when the parasympathetic system is out of whack from the invisible burdens we carry. Every time I describe this, I think of Ernie Barnes’s “Miss America” with elongated limbs, carrying buckets with an unknown substance, an uneven stride into a forced contrapposto; for a while, she was the profile image of “Elbow Grease,” an Instagram … [Read more...] about BRANCHING OUT INTO SCULPTURE: JO NANAJIAN, KLEDIA SPIRO & FEDA EID’S HEAVY LOAD
A WEALTH OF SKILL AND BREADTH OF VISION: GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS EXPLORES 2023 NEW ENGLAND
In the days before instamatic and digital cameras, realist paintings were timeless documents of life throughout the decades and centuries. Now, as our aging cities and landmarks continue aging and decaying, and major atmospheric storms change our coastlines and landscapes without warning, the eyes of the artists in the “2023 New England Regional Juried Exhibition” at the Guild of Boston Artists serve to give us a detailed look at the effect of those changes as well as current household items, clothing and buildings in our region that may not look the same even 10 years from now. This year’s show, “Bringing together the work of promising students, emerging and early career artists, as well as pieces from established professionals, the show is a celebration of the wealth of skill and breadth of vision in representational art across the region,” mainly features oil paintings and was juried … [Read more...] about A WEALTH OF SKILL AND BREADTH OF VISION: GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS EXPLORES 2023 NEW ENGLAND