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Artscope Magazine | November/December 2024

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Current Exhibits

Farsad Labbauf, "Of Shirin and Superheroes," oil on canvas, 2018, 54" x 44" from "From My East to your West," at Blank Space Gallery, 30 Gansevoort St, New York, until October 28.

Farsad Labbauf: From My East to Your West

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

by Nancy Nesvet

In a layering of styles and content, east and west, Iran and America, past and present, Farsad Labbauf has used imagery from his youth in Iran combined with iconic imagery from mass media and commercialism in America to comment on global economics and society. Speaking about his paintings at Blank Space Gallery, in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, in his solo show, “From My East to Your West,” he emphasized the constant bombardment of images from western entertainment media: television, comic books and toys while being exposed to Persian arts including calligraphy, Persian miniature painting, tile works and poetry. Resultantly, he has merged these images in his paintings. He comes from a background of sewing, so that stitchery is translated in his work to a series of lines ranging from the thinness of threads to thicker lines on the canvas, comprising faces, figures, backgrounds, … [Read more...] about Farsad Labbauf: From My East to Your West

LEFT: "5:30 a.m. In the Basement," oil painting on canvas overlaid with video projection, 60" x 36", 2018. CENTER: Safarani Sisters at interview, NY, Oct 19, with "Twilight reincarnation," oil painting on canvas overlaid with video projection, 108" x 72", 2018. RIGHT: "Late Afternoon Gaze 2," oil painting on canvas overlaid with video projection, 60" x 36", 2018.

From Two, One.

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

by Nancy Nesvet

Seeming to reference Edward Hopper’s interiors and Gerhard Richter’s “Woman Descending the Staircase” (1965, after Duchamp), with a bit of Vermeer’s Dutch Master technique and figurative expertise thrown in, the Safarani sisters’ video paintings, in their solo show “Reincarnation,” surpass and contemporize these past masterworks. Presented by Roya Khadjavi Projects, Iranian twin sisters, Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani, master of fine arts graduates from Northeastern University with bachelor of art degrees from Tehran University in painting, literally set the stage for the slow contemplation of domestic scenes featuring themselves. The video projection of wavering sheer curtains onto the oil paintings doubles the doppelgänger effect of two sisters appearing in and simultaneously painting the canvas. From the earliest paintings shown, layers of curtain increasingly part and cover to … [Read more...] about From Two, One.

LEFT: David Brewster, Freemason, at Gross McLeaf Gallery; RIGHT: Janet Echelman, “Pulse” installation in Center City District; photography by Melvin Epps.

PLAY ON PHILADELPHIA! JANET ECHELMAN’S PULSE & DAVID BREWSTER’S ROGUE WAVES AT GROSS MCLEAF GALLERY SHARE THE LOVE

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

by Nancy Nesvet

Philadelphia is an art city. When I first encountered Philadelphia’s City Hall on a bright sunny day in early October, I was enchanted by the extent and excellence of the installations and sculptures I encountered, beginning with bronze statues of historical figures that included John Wanamaker, President William McKinley, General McClellan and William Penn. Penn’s statue, created by Scotsman Alexander Milne Calder and installed in 1894, graces the top of the tower of Philadelphia’s City Hall. The city’s website claims it is the largest, at 37 feet tall and heaviest, at 53,000 pounds of any statue worldwide. Challenging the size of Penn in the same plaza is Claes Oldenburg’s “Clothespin,” which is joined by Robert Indiana’s “Love” sculpture, with red letters, and blue sides mimicking his 1976 painting. Jacque Lipshitz’s “Government of the People” (1976) looks like a tangle of human … [Read more...] about PLAY ON PHILADELPHIA! JANET ECHELMAN’S PULSE & DAVID BREWSTER’S ROGUE WAVES AT GROSS MCLEAF GALLERY SHARE THE LOVE

Deborah Baldizar, Ruthenian Woman, earthenware clay and paint.

CORNERED: DEBORAH BALDIZAR

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

by Brian Goslow

Sculptor Deborah Baldizar is one of eight artists featured in “8 Visions,” an exhibition taking place from August 1 through 31 at Attleboro Arts Center in Attleboro, Massachusetts; the show is previewed by Brian Goslow in Artscope’s July/August 2018 issue. Baldizar, an assistant professor of art at Lasell College, was unavailable when interviews for the story were conducted. Goslow caught up with her in late July as the show’s opening date neared to learn more about her work and an exciting group exhibition that she’ll be participating in at year’s end. TELL ME ABOUT THE WORK THAT YOU’LL BE EXHIBITING IN ATTLEBORO; IS THERE A THEME THAT RUNS THROUGH ALL THE PIECES? My work in “8 Visions” is a group of eight ceramic portraits inspired by a trip to Ellis Island. While there, I stood under a sea of larger than life size photos of immigrants taken between 1905-1920, when they were … [Read more...] about CORNERED: DEBORAH BALDIZAR

Left: Anya Leveille, "5 Rue Auber," cold wax, 18" x 18". Right: James C. Varnum, "Earth Currents," alcohol inks and ink on Yupo, 14" x 20".

Synaesthesia at Beacon Gallery

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

by Bryanna F. Drew

Beacon Gallery’s “Synaesthesia: Abstract Art & Creative Writing” is an exhibit featuring works by writers, poets and artists, some who have synaesthesia and some who do not. For those unfamiliar with the term, synaesthesia, it is the perceptual phenomenon where the stimulation of one sense automatically and involuntarily stimulates another. A person who has synaesthesia, or a synesthete, can see sounds or taste colors. Sometimes individual letters and numbers are associated with specific patterns or colors; a smell can prompt a specific sound to the synesthete’s ear; shapes can have their own tastes, or sounds can have their own textures. The focus of this exhibit is on abstract works of art accompanied by short poems or stories reacting to these pieces of art. Color and texture were unifying themes in the art pieces, while emotion was the biggest unifier between the pieces of … [Read more...] about Synaesthesia at Beacon Gallery

Marsha Nouritza Odabashian, Altamira (detail).

Marsha Nouritza Odabashian: Skins – The Body Landscape at the Armenian Museum of America

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

by J. Fatima Martins

WATERTOWN, MASS. --- Marsha Nouritza Odabashian’s small but mighty solo exhibition “Skins” is on view through June 24 at the Armenian Museum of America. “Skins” features 3 components — “Reliquaries Series,” “Altamira” and “Galaxy Waltz” — that dialogue together, creating a powerful meditative and revelatory environment containing within a remarkable transcend sacred energy. The theme of the exhibition engages the idea that the human body mirrors the land and sea from which it emerged, and all is one holistic living organism marked and bruised by human events and the shift of time. Formally, it is a landscape and figurative exhibition demonstrating the material possibilities of painting with nontoxic onion skin dyes on paper, and the expansive and flexible opportunities found within the practice of drawing and sculpting realism from abstracted forms, and the continued importance … [Read more...] about Marsha Nouritza Odabashian: Skins – The Body Landscape at the Armenian Museum of America