The Pulp Gallery, 80 Race Street Holyoke MA, is a treasure box. Artist and founder Dean Brown opened Pulp in April 2019 and named it to honor paper, the primary product of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Pulp is the interim product between trees and paper. Perhaps the gallery is the interim between artists, their works, their admirers and collectors. In 2019, Patrick O’Connor of the Springfield Republican celebrated the opening with an article in which Brown describes a gallery as the “white box” where artists want to display their works. Not surprisingly Pulp’s walls are all painted white. In a succession of rooms including the W.C., art is displayed with plenty of breathing room, alongside a scatter of Brown’s Holyoke artifacts, and his collection of Outsider and folk art. Brown also maintains a cabinet of flat works of multiple artists. He posts images of all gallery artists online on the … [Read more...] about A JEWEL TO BE DISCOVERED: WESTERN MASS.-BASED PULP HOLYOKE HOLDS PLEASANT SURPRISES

In a season dedicated to family gatherings, Roz Sommer’s “Foremothers and Forefathers” series of family portraits on view through December 6 at the Maud Morgan Arts’ Chandler Gallery, is a visual heartfelt embrace for all family members who have passed. The vividly painted portraits are based on two black and white photos from 1929, where 20 family members gathered to face the camera. Sommer’s American grandparents and six-year-old mother were visiting in Poland. Every Polish relative — children, elders, young and old couples — died in the Holocaust. Sommer is a master of paint; in this series, she used gauche on Yupo. She invented the colors that bring her ancestors back life. Their terrible demise is subtly foreshadowed in the coloration and stern stares, but their individual identities are portrayed with deep longing, awe and reverence. Each portrait is so vital that one could … [Read more...] about FOREMOTHERS AND FOREFATHERS: ROZ SOMMER RESURRECTS HER FAMILY IN PAINT AT MAUD MORGAN ARTS