Part sci-fi, part figures from “primitive” mythology, part cartoon, always humorous, slightly macabre, surreal, and offbeat, Deb Mell’s mixed media paintings and sculptures are wildly unique totemic chimeras. Like walking into a lodge where a ritual will begin, or a theater where you will watch a post-apocalyptic exorcism. There is something so alive, joyful, inventive and mysterious about her work, that you want to adopt it like a new pet, make it part of your family, study and make inquiry into her pieces for weeks and years. It’s on display at Provincetown’s Berta Walker Gallery through November 12. Growing up in a small Illinois town near Cahokia where the Mound Builders lived, their stories and those of her grandparents handed down from her matrilineal great-grandmother who was unregistered Cherokee, one of those Mell said, who fled to the hills — infiltrated her consciousness. … [Read more...] about “A NEW ARTISTIC REALITY”: DEB MELL’S FANTASY FIGURATIVE ART AT BERTA WALKER
Artscope Issues
AN OPEN DIALOGUE AT FAM: WHERE ARE ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE AT’S POWERFUL RESIDENCY
It’s unexpected to visit Fitchburg, about 50 miles from Boston, with a very large Spanish-speaking population, and within its art museum, experiencing a seven-artist exhibition that explores and presents varied views of Africa. Fitchburg Art Museum’s (FAM) partnership with artist collective Where Are All The Black People At (WAATBPA) has opened “Dialogues, Diasporas, and Detours Through Africa,” featuring the work of seven artists, curated by multi-disciplinary artist Dell Marie Hamilton with FAM curator Lauren Szumita. These artists in residence mark FAM’s inaugural Black Artist Residency. Through deep engagement with African art in the museum’s permanent collection, they created new bodies of work inspired by centuries of long-standing discourse between Africa and the United States. Artists each chose an African artwork from the collection as a starting point and through varied … [Read more...] about AN OPEN DIALOGUE AT FAM: WHERE ARE ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE AT’S POWERFUL RESIDENCY
REFLECTING ECOLOGIES: EXPLORING THE NATURAL WORLD AT MCLA’S GALLERY 51
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
RELEVANT AND UNIVERSAL: ARTISTS, BORN ELSEWHERE, FIND HOME AT UMASS AMHERST
In a time when mass migration is increasing, and the right to immigrate is dramatically contested, the individual experiences of immigrants are often absent from the discussion. “Artists, Born Elsewhere - Selections from the UMCA’s Permanent Collection” at The UniversityMuseumofContemporaryArt,UMassAmherstillustrates both individual narratives through imagery, and culturally specific expressions of the effects of displacement and relocation which resonate as being universally shared. Drawing from a collection of varied media pieces by artists whose work incubated within such diverse cultural backgrounds as Syria, Diana al-Hadid; Germany, Josef Albers; Viet Nam, An-My Lê; Hungary, André Kertész and Iran, Y.Z. Kami, the exhibition includes portraits, still-lifes, landscapes and abstract, sometimes fantastical prints and drawings. Many of the prints were acquired from Exit Art Gallery … [Read more...] about RELEVANT AND UNIVERSAL: ARTISTS, BORN ELSEWHERE, FIND HOME AT UMASS AMHERST
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