The call for art for “Free Speech: Art and Activism,” on view through August 25 at the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society in Lexington, Massachusetts, invited artists who are “passionate about our National Dialog and create artwork that challenges norms, ignites conversation, and sheds light on diverse political narratives.” Juror Chenoa Baker, a frequent Artscope Magazine contributor, made the selections and awarded prizes. She has worked with many major regional institutions, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Of her own artistic passions, she writes that “Materiality, visual research and ecologies of kinship shape her work.” In her statement about the exhibit as its juror, Baker wrote, “I love how craft is the media of dissent because it often goes under the radar in some circles but has a … [Read more...] about PERFECT TIMING: FREE SPEECH: ART AND ACTIVISM AT LEXART
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ARMENIAN MUSEUM OF AMERICA’S “GANDZARAN!: NOTABLE SELECTIONS FROM OUR COLLECTION”
The Armenian Museum of America, located in Watertown, Massachusetts, not only contextualizes Armenia’s lengthy and turmoiled past, but it also presents a more contemporary view of Armenian people today. Treasures are unveiled in “Gandzaran! Notable Selections from our Collection”, threading generations of people together through modern interpretations of a shared culture. Shadows, carvings, etchings and textiles all permanently engrave the history of a displaced country onto a physical plain, memorializing the lives that were lost to a genocide. Melkon Hovhannisyan’s impressionistic paintings are earthy and moody, with vibrant colors that bleed into one another and subjects that are almost indistinguishable from their background. “The Walk,” 1995, is a momentary glimpse of two figures, faceless and limbless yet they still feel alive. It seems as though the two people are moving forward … [Read more...] about ARMENIAN MUSEUM OF AMERICA’S “GANDZARAN!: NOTABLE SELECTIONS FROM OUR COLLECTION”
“A LONG ARC”: PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH, HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT AT ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART
Walking parallel along a two-dimensional timeline of the American South since 1845, tensions of the times are immortalized through still-life. A country’s whole is disseminated into parts that become a whole again, encapsulated in photographic images which reveal the expansion of rural farm towns and the pursuit of civil rights. The essence of humanity is revealed through the relationship of an object to its surroundings, forever tethered to the uprising and unsettlement that shaped its very existence. “A Long Arc,” on view through July 31 at the Addison Gallery of American Art, presents a documentation of a region’s pastoral landscapes over time. For all of its glassed transparency, Gordon Parks’ “Ondria Tanner and Her Grandmother Window-Shopping, Mobile, Alabama,” 1956, captures a moment of intimacy shared between two generations. Not only is the photo layered in its composition of … [Read more...] about “A LONG ARC”: PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH, HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT AT ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART
Art Basel in Basel 2024: A Vibrant Celebration of Global Art Excellence
With sales already on the rise, Art Basel 2024 debuted for VIPs on Tuesday, 11 June, with 285 galleries occupying the soaring convention center, Messe, in the heart of the Swiss city. The Messe Basel complex comprises five generously sized exhibition halls spanning a total area of 141,000 square meters. With a successful attendance of no fewer than 82,000 visitors in 2023, expectations are even higher this year for the public to explore 285 leading international galleries featuring artists ranging from early-20th-century Modern pioneers to emerging contemporary talents. An early announcement of high sales has promoted a sense of optimism. By mid-afternoon on Tuesday, gallery Hauser & Wirth reported selling Arshile Gorky's “Untitled (Gray Drawing (Pastoral))” from 1946-47 for $16 million, along with a work by Blinky Palermo for around $4 million and Louise Bourgeois' sculpture “Woman … [Read more...] about Art Basel in Basel 2024: A Vibrant Celebration of Global Art Excellence
JUBILATION FOR “THE BAND’S VISIT” AT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE
Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s Visit,” onstage through December 17 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, which is co-producing the play with SpeakEasy Stage, is a very polished, very melodious presentation of what can happen when two marginalized communities, respectively, Israeli and Arabic, realize that they may have more in common with each other than with the rather frigid embrace of their two ethnicities. It’s not an instant embrace, and not one without thorns, but the point is made believable, in many small and greater instances that one’s ‘family’ is an elastic concept. I’m on Page 22 of this musical’s program where the two principal actors, Brian Thomas Abraham and Jennifer Apple, stare at each other with visible tension from opposite ends of a wooden bench. Mr. Abraham is in the smart blue military uniform of his Egyptian band, while Ms. Apple, a mature, experienced … [Read more...] about JUBILATION FOR “THE BAND’S VISIT” AT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE
EMOTIONALLY AMBITIOUS: ACTORS’ SHAKESPEARE PROJECT’S INTENSELY ENGAGING TAKE OF VOGEL’S “HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE”
Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” is the powerfully gripping theater of a young woman arising out of an impoverished family and region of America to become abused by her uncle over a long period of time while both neighbors and immediate family look on unknowing and only carelessly, intermittently, caring. The play is being performed by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project through November 25 at the Roberts Studio Theatre at The Calderwood Pavilion in Boston. Uncle Peck, played be Dennis Trainor Jr., betrays, with the aid of this social wreckage, his better self and an innocent niece as a diabolical juggler who cares both too much and too little. Jennifer Rohn plays Li’l Bit, the abused child/woman who wants some control over her life in an environment where a woman’s control over both her social/economic status and sexuality is minimal. Any gains must continuously be wrested with all … [Read more...] about EMOTIONALLY AMBITIOUS: ACTORS’ SHAKESPEARE PROJECT’S INTENSELY ENGAGING TAKE OF VOGEL’S “HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE”