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Artscope Magazine | May/June 2019

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Current Exhibits

NORMAN ROCKWELL & HIS CONTEMPORARIES OPENS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ILLUSTRATORS; ROCKWELL MUSEUM TEAMS UP WITH COLLECTIVE ARTS BREWING

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Elayne Clift

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (see Artscope Magazine’s May/June 2019 issue for feature on this season’s exhibition highlights), the National Museum of American Illustrators in Newport, Rhode Island will debut its newest exhibition on May 23, culminating with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing that occurred on July 20, 1969. “Norman Rockwell & His Contemporaries: Fabulous Forties to Sensational Sixties” focuses on the 1940s through the 1960s, a time in American history when significant political and social changes were defining daily life for post-WWII Americans, and those who lived through the Cold War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Works include “Another Way to Go” by Stevan Dohanos, John Falter’s “Family Picnic” and Richard Stone’s 1956 advertisement for … [Read more...] about NORMAN ROCKWELL & HIS CONTEMPORARIES OPENS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ILLUSTRATORS; ROCKWELL MUSEUM TEAMS UP WITH COLLECTIVE ARTS BREWING

TOWARD AWARENESS AND SOLUTIONS: CONSIDERING CLIMATE CHANGE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE — DAY THREE

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

It is fitting that on my last day at the Venice Biennale, as on my first, it is raining buckets, only underscoring what I perceived as the themes of the biennale: false facts and the implications of global warming on climate change. Regarding false facts, the Indigenous Peoples exhibit, “Volume 0,” establishing its place as an original document, was held at the Zuecca Project Space outside the Giardini grounds. Sponsored by the Venezia Fondamenta Sant’Anna, organized by Dr. Max Carocci, the “Indigenous Peoples” pavilion showed a video on four medicine-ball size spheres, sequentially narrating the story of Venice’s impact on 16th century North American settlements. It said that trade and the necessity of acquiring gold and gems for trade provided the impetus for invading other lands, and Venice was a crossroads of trade. The video’s narration began, “We think of these explorers, taught … [Read more...] about TOWARD AWARENESS AND SOLUTIONS: CONSIDERING CLIMATE CHANGE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE — DAY THREE

Alexander Sokurov, 2017, giclee (photograph by Nancy Nesvet).

FALSE FACTS ON DISPLAY BY ARTISTS: DAY TWO AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

VENICE, ITALY, MAY 9, 2019 — I spent my second day at the Venice Biennale touring the national pavilions at the Giardini site and in other areas in Venice. The most beautiful exhibit I saw was on the second floor of the Russia pavilion, where the director of the 2004 film, Russian Ark and the 2011 winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, “Faust,” directed an exhibit that featured a life-size giclée of a Rembrandt painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son” on permanent display at the Hermitage, here along with the biblical verse, The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke, and Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, that speaks of property deeded to a son by a father, squandered by the son, further illustrated with statues of biblical figures. On two video screens were a vision of fires burning down buildings in present and biblical times, with Jesus sitting on a rock watching the … [Read more...] about FALSE FACTS ON DISPLAY BY ARTISTS: DAY TWO AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

Under the Surface: Nedret Andre’s ‘Seagrass: Ecological Engineers’ at Hess

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Bold, whimsical lines and color travel across the canvases in Nedret Andre’s exhibit at Chestnut Hill’s Hess Galley. Stormy blues and fiery corals swirl and collide into each other, creating abstract forms and shapes. Andre’s oil paintings in the collection “Seagrass: Ecological Engineers” delve into the ethereal world of one of the most quickly deteriorating ecosystems on the planet—seagrass. When snorkeling, Andre witnessed this flowering plant thriving off of the sunlight cascading into the waters, giving life to thousands of sea creatures with its production of carbon for food and its safe habitat. This plant so vital to the health of coral reefs and estuaries unfortunately experiences the loss of two football fields worth each hour due to industrial fishing, invasive species and pollution. Andre captures the fragility, interconnectedness and enchantment of seagrass in “Bridge to … [Read more...] about Under the Surface: Nedret Andre’s ‘Seagrass: Ecological Engineers’ at Hess

Re-stitching Pieces of the Past: Howardena Pindell’s ‘What Remains to be Seen’ at the Rose

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Art is an extension of oneself, a release that travels from the mind, through the arm and out the fingertips to pour onto the canvas. After a car crash in 1979 that left New York-based artist, Howardena Pindell, with a dented skull and short-term memory loss, she began to explore her own body and identity, as well as the politically-charged environment that rejected, denied and broke her in the past, just because of her skin color. Art was a way to mend the wounds, both within and outside of herself, a way to heal. It was a way to embrace her blackness, her femininity and her capabilities. Pindell’s exhibition at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum, “What Remains to be Seen,” showcases much more than just what remains, but holds entire stories deep in the threads and paint of each piece. Her 1988 work, “Autobiography: Air (CS560),” incorporates the many parts and layers that … [Read more...] about Re-stitching Pieces of the Past: Howardena Pindell’s ‘What Remains to be Seen’ at the Rose

Julia Galloway, “The Endangered Species Project: New England,” 2019, view of exhibit with urns on stands and walls, at Gallery 224, Allston, Massachusetts.

Vessels of Change: Julia Galloway’s Endangered Species Project at Gallery 224

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Allston, MA - We are constantly plugged into our cellphones, computers, and tablets, watching the world through a screen and living our busy lives that we may become disconnected with nature. We may forget that we are a part of it and just as vulnerable as birds, moths, fish and turtles endangered by habitat loss from urbanization, overfishing or pollution, side effects of an industrial world. Within Julia Galloway’s new exhibition, “The Endangered Species Project: New England,” at Harvard University’s Gallery 224, nature confronts visitors. Through 305 handmade porcelain urns on tables and shelved on the walls, Galloway’s art creates a space of reflection and memorialization of endangered and extinct species of each state in New England. They are brought together and individually remembered on vessels traditionally used to hold cremated ashes. As a Bostonian, now living and teaching … [Read more...] about Vessels of Change: Julia Galloway’s Endangered Species Project at Gallery 224