By Nancy Nesvet I hope you all read Artscope’s preview article of Art Basel Miami Beach 2017 in our November/December 2018 issue. If you didn’t, refer back to it because this Artscope writer was right on the pulse of this Art Basel. Not only is the world of the artist becoming self-and community-centered, but it is now becoming territorial, the buzzword and title of the Public sector. Although outside, territorial is the name and the game, with each installation concerned with its own world, and content within its borders. According to Philip Kaiser, curator of Public, each installation artist lays claim to part of the beach. Whoa! So, we have gone from cooperation between artists in common projects and restaurants at the last Art Basel (in Basel, Switzerland, in June 2017) to demarcation and territorialism. This doesn’t say a lot to dismiss selfishness in the art or greater world. … [Read more...] about The Art World Returns to Miami; Artscope’s 2017 Art Basel Miami Beach Preview: Part One
Audio/Visual
ARTSCOPE REVIEW: BRICKBOTTOM’S 30TH ANNUAL OPEN STUDIOS
By Sabrina Garvin SOMERVILLE, MASS. --- At this year’s Brickbottom Open Studios, held on November 18-19, there was so much artwork it was dripping from the staircases. As one of the largest, oldest and most well-attended open studios events, there was something for just about anyone’s artistic tastes, from elegant photographs, jewelry, oil paintings and pottery to remarkable found art, large installations, kinetic sculptures and mosaics. The Brickbottom Artist Association’s membership covers an incredible range of art forms and styles. Mix in live music and great snacks with crowds of excited people and artists, and that formula is the recipe for one awesome weekend-long art party. With over 70 artists’ studios in three repurposed A&P Grocery factory buildings, and its main gallery open to the public, there was plenty to do and look at. The Brickbottom Gallery itself held … [Read more...] about ARTSCOPE REVIEW: BRICKBOTTOM’S 30TH ANNUAL OPEN STUDIOS
THE HUNTINGTON THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS A GUIDE FOR THE HOMESICK
By James Foritano BOSTON, MA -- How best to introduce a play reeking with the ambiguities and ambivalences of the human situation is perhaps to start with a few paragraphs of bare facts. The title of the play under review is “A Guide for the Homesick” by playwright Ken Urban. Its current run takes place from October 6 through November at the Huntington Theatre Company’s new South End venue, the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. The main actors on stage are Mckinley Belcher III, playing “Teddy,” and Samuel H. Levine, playing “Jeremy,” under the direction of Colman Domingo. The setting and time are Amsterdam. Teddy’s hotel room. Evening and the following morning. January 2011. All these bare facts come together in a most accommodating and highly professional manner to hand the attending audience (you and me) a “guide” that is so “hot” you have to keep tossing … [Read more...] about THE HUNTINGTON THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS A GUIDE FOR THE HOMESICK
Honk Fest 2017
Shem Tane CAMBRIDGE, MA -- This past weekend the city of Cambridge celebrated its 11th year of HonkFest, which is a three day festival of brass bands from around the U.S. performing in both Davis and Harvard Squares. The core of the festival is to bring the community together through music. As I witnessed the many different bands performing and interweaving through the crowds I could feel an increasing sense of unity. Everywhere you turned, those two social centers of Cambridge were pulsing with dancing, discussion, and music. One of the bands that I caught was this rag tag collection of musicians from Seattle, Washington. At one point of their set they performed a cover of “Pink Elephants” from Dumbo. This set the crowd into a frenzy as the musicians began expanding into the crowd inches away from my face; the resulting adrenaline rush was palpable. The second group I … [Read more...] about Honk Fest 2017
WANDERLUST: CHATHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
By Molly Hamill Chatham, Massachusetts sits on the elbow of the sandy spit that saves Massachusetts from being a rectangle. And while collard gingham shirts, golf clubs and yachts abound in this seaside town, there is an enduring art scene that has kept it from being square. I’ve come to Chatham every summer of my life and have felt a depth of natural beauty here that inspires me. It’s that natural beauty that has drawn generations of people here to both make and appreciate art. The galleries and art spaces in Chatham have always offered a number of opportunities to do just that. Here, I will try to pick out a few not to miss as you’re rolling through town. But before all else – one needs fuel. Fortunately for me and my eternal search for the perfect breakfast sandwich, Rik and Caren Morse have just opened the Chatham Filling Station at 75 Old Harbor Rd., a stone’s throw from … [Read more...] about WANDERLUST: CHATHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
Art Makes the World Go Around: First Day at the Venice Biennale
By Nancy Nesvet Surrounded by water, filled with foreigners speaking different languages, in a city where getting lost in ancient alleyways is a regular occurrence, Venice provides the perfect venue for the most famous of the World’s Biennales. Almost every exhibit at the Venice Biennale deals with risks to our changing world, whether they be political or environmental. Located at ground zero, with the risk of inundation by water if global warming continues to produce floods and facing refugees arriving in Italy every day, Venice is the perfect place for government-sponsored art projects seen by an international public. On my first day at the Biennale, coming by vaporetto boat down the grand canal, I entered the former Arsenale grounds, where an arsenal of weapons was once housed. Walking further, I surveyed what Paolo Buratta notes in the “Introduction to Biennale Arte 2017 Short … [Read more...] about Art Makes the World Go Around: First Day at the Venice Biennale