“In his mysterious paintings,” writes Leonard Michaels about Edward Hopper, “he makes felt what isn’t there, the nothing, the nothing that isn’t there.” The same ought to be said about Mitchell Johnson’s oeuvre. Not only because Johnson is an artistic descendant of Hopper, both brilliant colorists, and not only because both have made the landscape around Truro come alive in oil, but also because in some ways the statement is even truer in Johnson’s work, especially lately. True partly in the sense of what isn’t there — unseen narratives and events that bring a life to any given moment, any given moment of seeing — but also who isn’t there. Fewer human figures populate Johnson’s spare but vibrant art than do Hopper’s — and in his next exhibition, “Nothing and Change: Selected Paintings 1990-2022,” which is on view from September 7 through 18 at the Truro Center for the Arts, you can … [Read more...] about THE HUSH OF HELD BREATH: JOHNSON’S QUIET PAINTINGS RETURN TO CASTLE HILL
Artscope Issues
50 YEARS OF CREATIVE FREEDOM: TRURO CENTER FOR THE ARTS LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
Nature and history are frames for a feast of creativity, as Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill celebrates its 50th anniversary, and heads into the next 50 years. There are two sites for the center. The original on Meetinghouse Road hosts the art gallery, art studios and a three-story office in a former windmill tower which looked to the center’s founder, Joyce Johnson, like a castle. Johnson, a Cape icon, an evocative woodblock printer and sculptor in many media of sensuous modernist figures, who self-built her house in the outer Cape dunes, saved the acreage and buildings 50 years back as a place to teach art. While Johnson was not sure that it would take off, it did, enlarging over the years to host some 175 workshops a year. Cherie Mittenthal, the Center’s director for 20 years, said, “Joyce is smiling down and happy about what has transpired here.” The Center is a big … [Read more...] about 50 YEARS OF CREATIVE FREEDOM: TRURO CENTER FOR THE ARTS LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
SOWA DISTRICT REBOUNDS: OPEN STUDIOS SHOWCASE 450 HARRISON ARTISTS
Artists’ studios evolved and changed over time but have always maintained a magnetism that sparks visitors’ curiosity. How is SoWA, Boston’s busiest Art + Design District, and how are artists dealing with the post-pandemic season? Can SoWA ́s Artists Open Studios serve as a continuing model for community revitalization through the arts? The art of revitalizing or the art revitalizing? On my recent visit to Ireland, I was eager to see Francis Bacon’s preserved studio, which has been at Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery since 1998. It is a large project undertaken by a team of archeologists, conservators and curators who carefully recreated every detail, including the dust accumulated since the artist’s death in 1992. The lines of visitors to see the studio through narrow transparent doors are huge. Throughout history, there has been a fascination with seeing the intimacy of artists’ studios … [Read more...] about SOWA DISTRICT REBOUNDS: OPEN STUDIOS SHOWCASE 450 HARRISON ARTISTS
GREETINGS FROM QUINCY!: THE ARTS HELP BRING RESIDENTS BACK DOWNTOWN
Since its inception in March 2006, Artscope Magazine has been based on Hancock Street in Quincy, Massachusetts, AKA, “The City of Presidents.” Earlier this year, we relocated to the fourth floor of South Shore Health Building alongside QUBIC Labs at 1495 Hancock, after the closing of Solomon’s Collection & Fine Rugs, our longtime home base, a half-mile away. When I last visited the area, pre-COVID, much of the area in front of Quincy City Hall was boarded off for redevelopment of the area. Now, it holds a welcoming and beautiful city park, the Hancock Adams Common, hosting statues of John Adams and John Hancock, and the entrance to picturesque Hancock Cemetery, bordered by United First Parish Church and Old City Hall. Thomas P. Koch has been Quincy’s mayor since 2008. “When I first took office, it wasn’t a pleasant experience walking downtown,” he said. “We had to create a new … [Read more...] about GREETINGS FROM QUINCY!: THE ARTS HELP BRING RESIDENTS BACK DOWNTOWN
Welcome September/October 2022: From Brian Goslow
Dear Artscope reader, 100 issues. We’ve reached this landmark issue thanks to you, our longtime loyal readers, many that still like to hold a physical copy of a magazine in their hands and who have subscribed to get their copies delivered by mail or electronically delivered onto their iPads or reading tablets. We can’t thank the artists we’ve covered through our 16 and a half years enough — who’ve been our biggest supporters, telling their fellow artists and friends about Artscope, spreading the word on our behalf to new audiences and sometimes, when necessary, helping us rise above the politics that can take place in the region’s art industry. We hope you’ll continue to mention Artscope to any gallery, museum or arts-related store or organization that you visit and suggest they partner up with us to attract more collectors for your work and attendees to your — and their — … [Read more...] about Welcome September/October 2022: From Brian Goslow
CAPSULE PREVIEWS: JULY/AUGUST 2022
“Who We Are: Celebrating Diversity” remains on view through July 31 at the Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, 122 Western Ave., Lowell, Massachusetts. The exhibition “is a showcase of art from those who are traditionally overlooked in New England and Greater Lowell including BIPOC, LGBT+ and non-binary communities” as selected by juror Gwendolyn Lanier, an artist at Lowell’s Brush Art Gallery and Studios and a teaching artist at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts, whose artwork has been exhibited at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and the Painted Bride in Philadelphia. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from noon-5:30 p.m. and on Sunday from noon-4 p.m. The show’s opening reception takes place on July 2 from 3-5 p.m. Joe Caruso’s “Movers and Shakers” will be on view from July 9 through August 20 at HallSpace, 950 … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS: JULY/AUGUST 2022