I’m in the atelier of Alexandra Rozenman in her Joy Street Studio in Somerville just beyond Union Square, its majestic length filled with the mostly quiet energy of artists of all persuasions working industriously in their brick studios. Joy Street ends at the appropriately named Brickbottom Building where on January 27, Rozenman will be featured in their lobby gallery space, along with two other artist/ colleagues, in a month-long exhibit entitled “Space ←→ Color ←→ Movement: Lyrical Realism into Poetic Abstraction” with each word of the title joined to the other with a two-headed arrow to illustrate how in the process of painting, in deft hands, all these elements are joined in tension and harmony. (To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.) … [Read more...] about HIGHLY PERMEABLE BEINGS: ROZENMAN, GERSTEIN & ROTHSCHILD ALIGN AT BRICKBOTTOM

At Boston Sculptors Gallery, audiences have the opportunity to see “Bespoke” by Kenson Truong by simply parting a curtain and walking into a pitch-black gallery. The idea is to stand in that space shining a flashlight at any one of the four walls to see text printed in red and blue, which is visible only when using the high intensity black light provided. Viewers in the dark connect with the text as they search for narrative revealed with the radial glow cast by their flashlights. In this way, not too much of the narrative is shown at any given moment. There is mystery. Audiences enveloped in darkness can absorb at their pace. In this seemingly liquid environment Truong hones a metaphor of the unconscious creating a story of innocence, treachery, mortality, angst and the will to survive. I talked with Kenson Truong by phone. He described his technique for screen-printing text … [Read more...] about COMPLEMENTARY AESTHETICS: TRUONG AND SELVAGE EXPLORE LIGHT AT BOSTON SCULPTORS

Last fall, I was honored to be asked to jury the Bromfield Gallery’s SOLO 2022 Competition. I set out on the task looking for work that would call out to passerby in a neighborhood filled with top-rate galleries and artists. This January, Virginia Mahoney and Anne Birutė Harris will present work to carry you away visually, in experience and in thought. Harris’ “PEAK” solo show combines painting, performance, photographyandvideoinintroducingherseven-year“collaboration” with the tallest mountain in Massachusetts, Mount Greylock. Her working relationship there began after she had spent several years visiting different waterfalls and forests in Massachusetts that eventually led her out west to The Berkshires. “One day I was thinking about yearly foliage drives my family went on as a kid, and it was in this moment I remembered North Adams’ Hairpin Turn, and the mountain pass through … [Read more...] about A TIME FOR FRESH AIR: HARRIS AND MAHONEY MOVE INTO THE SPOTLIGHT AT BROMFIELD

The day I went to see the two shows reviewed here, I heard the news that the British Empire was getting a nip/tuck when Barbados announced it would henceforth be a republic. The news item reminded me of a remark one of my college professors made a good many years ago. Empires fall, he said, “Look at the Habsburgs — what do you have but Vienna and the suburbs.” During the 20-minute drive to the Burlington City Arts Gallery, I tried to name as many empires as I could remember — the Roman, Babylonia, Sassanid, Hittite, and so on. I may have been more focused on the snow and road conditions, had I not been anticipating the exhibition “Objects of Empire,” one of the two exhibits on view through February 5. (To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.) … [Read more...] about THE ARCHITECTURE OF DISRUPTION: BRADLEY BORTHWICK AND UNBOUND ARTISTS IN BURLINGTON