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Artscope Magazine | September/October 2023

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Wonderlust

NBMAA’S EXPANDING COLOR FIELD: CAREY & GOURLAY SHOWCASED IN NEW BRITAIN & WEST HARTFORD

// September/October 2023, Wonderlust

by Suzanne Volmer

The large format experimental photography in “Ellen Carey: Struck by Light,” on view at New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) through January 28, 2024, delivers a feast of process for the eyes. Her work has the sensibility of color-field painting brought into photographic context relating similar minimalist simplicity, elegance and color-saturation. It is remarkable to see the physicality of Carey’s nearly floor-to-ceiling unframed polaroid prints. The artist’s “pulls” are installed pinned to the walls and hanging unframed, exposed and tactile. The beauty of her photographic experimentation keys to size and color, and the positive/negative aspect of showing both print and emulsion sheets side-by-side with equal emphasis. Remembering NBMAA Director Brett Abbott’s specialization in photography from my interview with him for Artscope’s March/April 2022 issue, I asked NBMAA curator … [Read more...] about NBMAA’S EXPANDING COLOR FIELD: CAREY & GOURLAY SHOWCASED IN NEW BRITAIN & WEST HARTFORD

A SLIGHTLY ANTIC CAPE COD JAUNT: SUMMER ARTISTS & EATS OFF THE BEATEN PATH

// Artscope Issues, July/August 2023, Wonderlust

by Lee Roscoe

Talking about her husband, Michael Baksa’s jewelry, painter Teresa Baksa said, “You really have to hold it in your hand to get the full impact of these works of art.” Baksa, who was born and grew up on Cape Cod, lives in a circa 1750 home owned by one of the many historic Quaker Kelleys. He created the new woodwork and cabinets as well as remodeled the upstairs and built the garage which houses the sleek wooden wherry he made by hand and rows on the Bass River. His mum was a well- known baker and in the 1970s, the Cape was a “hothouse of crafters” Teresa said, and the congenial gestalt fed into Michael’s handiness. Baksa works in a yellow and white spiffy cabin cruiser that he transported to his home, where he put in a dock with a stairway fitted with aluminum stairs to access its galley studio. It’s shipshape and fitted with hand and power tools with which he cuts gems, polishes them … [Read more...] about A SLIGHTLY ANTIC CAPE COD JAUNT: SUMMER ARTISTS & EATS OFF THE BEATEN PATH

ADVENTURES CLOSER TO HOME

// May/June 2023, Wonderlust

by Marta Pauer-Tursi

With the three-plus years of pandemic isolation behind us, that deep yearning for travel gnaws away at the heart as much as the psyche. We long to share conversation with people, draw in the scent of summer’s earthy outdoor bounty and take in the revised view of well-loved places that have lingered in memory for far too long. No more waiting — suddenly we are off — unless your passport has expired. A trip to the Médoc region of France may not be in the plans this year as I await the six-month lag to renew my passport but travels closer to home are just as satisfying. The hometown journey starts in Northern Vermont. My travel begins at South End Burlington’s Soda Plant, a former soda manufactory, reinvented a century later as an arts and entertainment complex in the city’s funky arts district. A lot has changed here: new galleries, cafes, bars, design studios — a basecamp for … [Read more...] about ADVENTURES CLOSER TO HOME

CULTURAL, SYMBOLIC, SPIRITUAL.

// May/June 2023, Wonderlust

by Linda Sutherland

It’s spring in New England! Let’s head out for a fun road trip! We’ll hit four art venues and a dozen artists, spanning the Seacoast of New Hampshire and Maine. Let’s begin in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 100 Market Gallery is located at, yes, 100 Market Street, in Portsmouth. The current exhibition is titled “Viewpoints: 5 Artists Come Together.” The show runs now until July 9, and boasts 110 works. Photographers Annette Brennan and Jon Winslow sometimes overlap subjects, but then they take the road less traveled. Brennan will often focus on close-ups of nature — a “bee’s-eyes” view of a rose, or a startlingly bright juxtaposition of purple iris against yellow-green stems. A classic is her photo “Forsythia” — an abundant, almost canvas-dominating array of glowing forsythia, a weathered barn behind it shedding old red paint and a calming blue sky sets the stage. Her series … [Read more...] about CULTURAL, SYMBOLIC, SPIRITUAL.

A RETURN TO CAPE LIVING

// May/June 2023, Wonderlust

by Laura Shabott

Power, intimacy, legacy. These words describe the phenomenal exhibitions slated for the summer of 2023 at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) and Cape Cod Museum of Art (CCMoA), two regional museums with international audiences and memberships. Each institution looks to its formidable community of artists for a lineup of great art by highly accomplished people and groups. Here are the dates, times and show descriptions for May, June, July and August 2023. PROVINCETOWN ART ASSOCIATION AND MUSEUM 460 COMMERCIAL STREET PROVINCETOWN, MASSACHUSETTS SKY POWER: BECKONING COLOR May 5 - June 25 Sky Power is a contemporary painter living and working in Provincetown. Her abstractions and dreamscapes are driven by emotion, strong composition and color-as-form, created through the language of abstraction. Influenced by three Hans Hofmann students — Paul Resika, Selina … [Read more...] about A RETURN TO CAPE LIVING

THE SPILLOVER WAS REAL

// Artscope Issues, January/February 2023, Wonderlust

by Marjorie Kaye

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