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Artscope Magazine | November/December 2024

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Current Exhibits

CoSo’s Salute to Summer

// Current Exhibits, Current Issue, Exhibits, July/August 2016

From Ship to Shore to Newbury Street by Molly Hamill “Ship to Shore,” the 2016 juried summer members’ show at the Copley Society of Art, brings a plethora of vibrant work to their Newbury Street gallery. Juried by Austen Bailly, curator of American Art at the Peabody Essex Museum, the show includes over 30 works in a wide range of style, medium and technique. The paintings, photography and monotypes Bailly selected are a wispy, summery collection of landscapes, seascapes and still lifes, which together evoke a distinct and welcome sense of season. With over 300 artist members,the Copley Society has a deep pool of talent from which to draw — and the high caliber work in this show makes that clear. Don Dalton’s delicate watercolor, “Downeast Sunrise,” beautifully captures the particular moist, early morning heat that saturates a rocky shore with the warm anticipation of … [Read more...] about CoSo’s Salute to Summer

Speaking a Different Language

// Current Exhibits, Current Issue, Exhibits, July/August 2016, Visual Arts

The Walshes in Williamstown by Elizabeth Michelman In most advanced art museums, it’s almost unthinkable to present an exhibition without resorting to curatorial explanations. Language is deemed essential to orient the viewer to historical information and current critical jargon. Without it, Lisa Dorin, deputy director of curatorial affairs at the Williams College Museum of Art, could hardly impart knowledge about today’s art and artistic legacy to culture-hungry college students. But she gamely rolled with the punches when Dan and Lexa Walsh arrived to create a large-scale installation that challenged many robust conventions of the exhibiting institution. The installation/exhibition that resulted, “Both Sides Now,” is powerful, subversive and sometimes just plain funny. Every museum could learn from it. Many things are odd in this collaboration between the … [Read more...] about Speaking a Different Language

Of Water and Bone

// Current Exhibits, Current Issue, Exhibits, July/August 2016, Visual Arts

Mother/Daughter Mandle in Newport by Suzanne Volmer “Of Water and Bone,” a mother and daughter exhibit created collaboratively by Gayle Wells Mandle and Julia Barnes Mandle, presents itself as a conceptual umbrella and makes a cohesive statement that communicates a composite view of the artists’ individual and shared perspectives based upon their experiences. The artists’ aesthetics have gravitational pull toward process charged with cultural awareness and investigatory layering of content worth contemplating, especially in an election year. Gayle explores global issues of water sustainability and Julia examines the topic of immigration. The exhibition is on view at the Newport Art Museum through August 9. Both artists are mindful of the discrimination that women face seeking opportunities, so in showing collaboratively they prefer using the gender neutrality of their … [Read more...] about Of Water and Bone

Everything’s Purrfect in Worcester

// Current Exhibits, Current Issue, Exhibits, July/August 2016, Visual Arts

WAM Exhibit is the Cat's Meow by Brian Goslow “Meow: A Cat-inspired Exhibition” is the kind of show many museums have been presenting of late that utilizes a theme aimed at attracting a larger cross-section of potential visitors — and with rare exception, who doesn’t like cats? While my wife wondered why the Worcester Art Museum didn’t try to secure Roy Lichtenstein’s “Laughing Cat,” early Andy Warhol feline favorites “25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy,” “So Happy” or “So Meow,” or one of John Singer Sargent’s portraits featuring a cat-as-prop, and while others have wished the show was larger and louder, I’m pleased with the museum’s decision to utilize works from its vaults that have given me an expanded appreciation for genres I hadn’t previously paid much attention to. My favorite aspect of the show was the collection of 10 Will Barnet color lithographs and … [Read more...] about Everything’s Purrfect in Worcester

Hot Chicks at Silver Circle

// Current Exhibits, Current Issue, Exhibit Openings, Exhibits, July/August 2016, Visual Arts

Bigger is Better by J. Fatima Martins With cheeky intelligence, witty bravado, and a balance of innocence and sensuality, Silver Circle Art Center presents “Big Chicks,” a collaborative exhibition — featuring the contemporary traditionalist painter Alecia Underhill and the expressive and diverse sculptor, painter and illustrator Jean-Paul Jacquet — that addresses the contentious meaning of the word “chick.” In a preview of the show, Silver Circle noted, “After all, some people like chickens, some people like chicks.” Jacquet, who is a highly respected visual arts instructor at the prestigious Pomfret School in Pomfret, Conn. and one of the most intriguing visual artists working in New England today, is showing large-scale paper and fiberglass sculptures, some created specifically for “Big Chicks,” of highly stylized, voluptuous nude women (and one man) that are … [Read more...] about Hot Chicks at Silver Circle

South County Invitational

// Current Exhibits, Current Issue, Exhibits, July/August 2016, Visual Arts

Showcasing Connections and Contrasts by J. Fatima Martins Sumo wrestling. It’s a sport. It’s a performance. And it’s art, explored in a three-part — photograph, video and sculpture relief painting — installation by Jocelyn Foye in “The South County Invitational.”. In “Sumo Wrestling Performance,Torrance Art Museum, CA” Foye uses sumo as source material to dialogue about the power of the body. The work is a documention and reinterpretation of an actual event, showing and exploring the movement, power and structure of human anatomy and how it affects and alters the surrounding environment as well as the material objects and other human bodies it touches. Foye’s installation is one of the most conceptually and materially interesting works included in an exhibition featuring over 35 works by 23 artists. They are: Kevin Gilmore, Nina Briggs, Jon Campbell, Chris Sancomb, … [Read more...] about South County Invitational