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
Artscope Issues
WELCOME March/April 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Dear Artscope reader, When I took the position of managing editor back in 2006, I couldn’t have imagined we would still be having these bi-monthly conversations and celebrating the artists of the New England region 17 years later. But thankfully, here we are, continuing to be inspired by the efforts and creativity of our arts community. When he first started the magazine, publisher Kaveh Mojtabai had envisioned Artscope carrying the dialogue in the arts between artists, patrons and the public through multiple platforms, and that he had a 10-year vision to develop this. “My original goal was to incorporate art into our everyday lives to breathe creativity back into our routines and work. To fill the void in our cultural community, to raise the bar in timely and egalitarian arts journalism reporting, to support artists, and ultimately to bring the arts into our daily working lives, as … [Read more...] about WELCOME March/April 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
CAPSULE PREVIEWS: January/February 2023
“Flora & Fauna,” an exhibition featuring encaustic artists Debra Claffey, Patricia Gerkin, Kellie Weeks and Charyl Weissbach, will be held from January 7 through February 18 at The Brush Art Gallery & Studios, 256 Market St., Lowell, Massachusetts. Claffey focuses on the plant world, celebrating its beauty of form, shape, and infinite color. Gerkin challenges viewers “to note that space where two worlds meet—outer and inner” with her intuitive process allowing her materials (paint sticks, encaustic, metal leaf and disparate materials), to organically lead the way. While using encaustics “for their insurmountable quality, depth and brilliancy,” Weeks also incorporates dry pigments, metal leaf, shellac and other mixed media as vehicles to develop a whole lexicon of imagery. Weissbach, painting with pigment sticks and encaustic, explores nature’s vastness and the details found … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS: January/February 2023
THE SPILLOVER WAS REAL
Art Basel is like a meteor that falls to earth creating an energy crater in Miami Beach, with layers and layers of concentric circles of influence reverberating for miles. During my visit, I spent much time digging for diamonds, being attracted to art that spoke not only for the moment, but that radiated infinitesimal revelation of the past and projections of possible futures. As an artist, curator and gallery director, I naturally stood in awe of the logistical tangles of such a large and complex event, of the thousands of workers involved in every aspect of the exhibitions, the gallery owners’ selections and vision, and logistical challenges and safety issues. Certainly, this is a feat of feats. Art Basel Miami Beach is the epicenter of the comprehensive Miami Art Week, and I also ventured off campus to the streets of the city proper to find out how the main event impacted the … [Read more...] about THE SPILLOVER WAS REAL
A SUPPORTIVE PLATFORM
Rising seas and high-rise buildings continue to coexist in Miami, a city threatened by climate change, vulnerable to constant floods and doomed to be swallowed by the ocean. While the water doesn’t claim part of southern Miami Beach, the art fairs continue to take over part of the landscape annually, trying to coexist and amicably blend in with nature. Artists have been, for decades, the leading voices echoing the need for social, political and economic changes while raising awareness about pressing environmental issues through their practices. Art fairs would only be expected to comply with contemporary art market interests by making meaningful changes and adapting to healthy habits. Consistency speaks louder than words. Founded in 2020, the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), a nonprofit membership organization, has been introducing proactive ways to yield results where members … [Read more...] about A SUPPORTIVE PLATFORM
BEAUTY OUT OF BRUTALITY
Can anything good or beautiful come out of a nasty, brutish war? The rape, murder and mayhem of the almost year-long war in Ukraine scarcely seems a place to look for goodness and creativity. But two Ukrainian icon artists, Oleksandr Klymenko and his wife, Sofia Atlantova, have managed to bring beauty out of brutality. Looking at the debris of war, they noticed that the wooden boxes that held ammunition look much like the wood backings on which icons have traditionally been painted for centuries. In the Ukrainian Orthodox Christian religion, a person’s creative act of painting images of the Virgin Mary (Theotokos), Jesus (Pantocrator) or the Saints is a religious observance or act of veneration. Any individual may make an “icon” to participate in this religious “act,” but naturally, some people are more adept at making beautiful or accurate images of Mary or Jesus than others. For … [Read more...] about BEAUTY OUT OF BRUTALITY