By Rosemary Chandler BOSTON, MA– The work of five Roxbury artists has traveled to Back Bay’s American Islamic Congress for Discover Roxbury’s latest exhibition, “Egyptian Moments, Roxbury Connections.” Inspired by Egypt but grounded in the artists’ Roxbury roots, the artwork reflects the artists’ personal experiences in the civilization built up along the banks of the Nile. The exhibit features the work of multimedia artists Ekua Holmes, Lucilda Dassardo-Cooper and Basil El Halwagy, as well as photographers Hakim Raquib and Derek Lumpkins. All of these artists recently spent time abroad in Egypt. Ekua Holmes’s “Ascension” series is the clear standout of the show. The four-panel series — composed of collage and mixed media on wood — is a fiery burst of brilliant reds and oranges against the white walls of the gallery. Holmes imparts her impressions of Egypt through an assemblage of … [Read more...] about Egyptian Moments, Roxbury Connections at the AIC Center
Exhibit Openings
Aphrodite and the Gods of Love at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
By Rosemary Chandler BOSTON -- At the entrance of the exhibition, the marble head of Aphrodite floats in the air, as the black metal bar that secures it to its pedestal disappears against the dark wall behind it. Separated from its body centuries earlier, this is all that remains of the once life-sized statue of the beguiling Greek goddess of love and beauty. Her pensive, almond-shaped eyes gaze outwards at her spectators as they enter the latest Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exhibition, “Aphrodite and the Gods of Love,” and her full lips turn slightly upwards in a mysterious smirk. It is an inexplicable expression akin to the infamous smile of the “Mona Lisa.” Yet unlike da Vinci’s femme fatale, Aphrodite holds no secrets, bearing all before her spectators in the impressive collection of nudes that follows. The show is a collection of 160 pieces drawn largely from the MFA’s permanent … [Read more...] about Aphrodite and the Gods of Love at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Degas and the Nude at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
By Rosemary Chandler BOSTON -- A nude woman lowers herself into an empty metal washbasin, bending her knees and supporting her weight with one hand, while pushing a knot of thick red hair on top of her head with the other. Her head is bent downwards, and she is oblivious to the presence of the large crowd that has gathered behind her, catching her unaware in this intimate moment of her daily life. "The Tub," first exhibited at the eighth Impressionist exhibition in 1886, continues to captivate viewers at its temporary new home in Boston as part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s latest exhibition, “Degas and the Nude,” filling them with the same voyeuristic pleasure that it first inspired over a century ago in Paris. The work is quintessentially Degas, and it is an exciting inclusion in the show. “Degas and the Nude,” the product of a joint collaboration between the Museum of Fine … [Read more...] about Degas and the Nude at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ken Gonzales-Day: Profiled at the Koppelman Gallery
By James Foritano MEDFORD, MA – Ken Gonzales-Day’s “Profiled” exhibition at Tufts University’s Koppelman Gallery is a show you don’t just drop into. Gonzales-Day, like many art photographers, has a talent for capturing his subjects in arresting moments. He takes great care with lighting, positioning, equipment and technique. And yet, his talent, when all is explained, is still both arresting and deeply baffling. The mystery of these portraits is that, as lively as they are, the subjects “profiled” are definitely not and have never been alive. In this project, Los Angeles based artist and art historian, Ken Gonzales-Day has rifled through the storerooms of such well-established museums as the J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, among others, both foreign and domestic, to haul out and dust off mostly busts but occasional full length figures of … [Read more...] about Ken Gonzales-Day: Profiled at the Koppelman Gallery
Going Places at Albright Art Gallery
By Rosemary Chandler CONCORD, MA- Albright Art Gallery is looking to mix things up in Concord, a small town rich with American history and tradition. With its latest exhibition, “GOING PLACES,” it has done exactly that. Featuring the work of Raphael Griswold, a New England native who just returned from two years abroad in Spain, “GOING PLACES” is a unique exhibition that allows visitors to view the world through Griswold’s eyes. The exhibition is a collection of landscapes executed in varied media. Through a combination of painting, film and photography, visitors are removed from the gallery space and immersed in the small segment of the world represented by each work, what Griswold calls artobjects. The latitude and longitude of each destination are listed in the exhibition guide, and from these numbers the visitor is able to determine the real distance between the landscapes, which … [Read more...] about Going Places at Albright Art Gallery
Smooth & Smoky at Vessels, Varujan Boghosian at Victoria Munroe
By Brian Goslow BOSTON-Varujan Boghosian is one of New England’s most beloved artists — and collectors. The Hanover, New Hampshire resident has three studios filled with long-abandoned and unused artifacts of American every day life and discarded industrial age found at yard sales, flea markets and estate sales that he painstakingly turns into engaging works of art, collages and assemblages that will have you thrilled not only for their visual effect, but the emotional sparks they set off in your memory. Experience them first-hand from September 15 through October 29 at Victoria Munroe Fine Art, 16 Newbury Street in Boston. Bringing together 10 of the best ceramic artists from around the world who’ve mastered the combined properties of flame, smoke and clay, “Smooth and Smoky,” which opens September 16 and continues through October 16 at the Vessels Gallery at 450 Harrison Street #71 … [Read more...] about Smooth & Smoky at Vessels, Varujan Boghosian at Victoria Munroe