By James Foritano It’s so important when a lecture is just over your head that there are pictures. Every time curator Judith Motzkin’s words sailed beyond my reach, I looked around at the works of the ten potters represented in this month-long show at Vessels and understood that she was talking about Romance. Not the small potatoes served up in cinema potboilers, where the gems are mostly ersatz and the heroes so muscle-bound that a daily walk to the gym is epic. No. Here are real pearls. Behind hand-polished surfaces, evanescent traces of combustible minerals and salts dance mystic skeins of color and form. The potters represented in “Smooth and Smoky” seek to re-discover the early days of pottery, when clay was baked in open fires without the decoration of glaze. The days when utility and simplicity were key concepts; but when, being human, potters worth their salt evolved signature … [Read more...] about Smooth and Smoky at Vessels Gallery, Boston
Artscope Online
Irene Koronas: Odd Little Books and Written Landscapes
At the O’Neill Branch of the Cambridge Public Library by James Foritano CAMBRIDGE - Thank goodness for the nooks and corners of neighborhood branch libraries which, like the O’Neill, give shelter to local artists. This September, Irene Koronas, a member of the North Cambridge Artists Association (NOCA), holds forth with a solo show arrayed behind glass-enclosed shelves, push-pin friendly walls of the O’Neill’s vestibule, just steps from Mass. Ave. and Porter Square. It’s a quiet vision, but also relentless and restless. Colored marks that can only be identified as “squiggles” repeat endless tight coils; boomerang-shaped vectors face left and right, climbing in seething counterpoint towards a horizon just inches below the top of their rectangular paper fields — where they become fainter, but just as relentlessly themselves. I almost typed “feel” instead of “field,” since these marks … [Read more...] about Irene Koronas: Odd Little Books and Written Landscapes
Visiting Italy: Venice, Rome, Florence…
by James Foritano (artscope magazine’s one-of-a-kind art reviewer James Foritano recently visited Italy with his wife, Maddy; he kindly shares his memoir of the journey here) When my sister and I were children, we delighted in assembling in the family room where our father would set up a folding screen and projector, and our mother would draw the curtains. Then we’d watch ourselves living as large as the American 1950s would permit, giggling and pointing at people we thought we knew cavorting in more vivid colors and stranger poses than we’d noticed when we were embedded, pell-mell, in full-throttle action. I didn’t realize when my wife, Madeleine, and I headed for Italy last month that we’d be re-experiencing that inside/outside feeling of being both embedded in swirling action and, at once, distant observers. But we did. I had explained to my skeptical but resigned traveling … [Read more...] about Visiting Italy: Venice, Rome, Florence…
New England Sculptors At Bridgewater State, Schmidt Does Kafka At Harvard & RISD Alumni At South Shore Art Center
by Brian Goslow The New England Sculptors Association has two shows currently on view in the region. The first, curated by L’Attitude Gallery owner Betty Bothereau at Bridgewater State University’s Maxwell Library in Bridgewater, Mass., features 60 works from over three-dozen artists in a wide variety of materials from traditional bronze, marble and wood to found objects and mixed media, and continues through October 15. The second, “Art in Nature,” is on the grounds of The Fells, the historic estate & gardens located on Lake Sunapee in Newbury, New Hampshire, and can be enjoyed daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October 10. “Pavel Schmidt: Franz Kafka: Verschrieben & Verzeichnet — Written & Drawn” features 49 drawings by Schmidt, a painter, illustrator and installation artist from Switzerland, that explore Kafka’s creative process. Each work is complimented by a portion … [Read more...] about New England Sculptors At Bridgewater State, Schmidt Does Kafka At Harvard & RISD Alumni At South Shore Art Center
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
RAW Fusion: Emerging Talent at Your Local Nightclub
by Sara Farizan BOSTON- Sometimes the best kinds of parties are the ones filled with artists. Artists see the world from a perspective a guy working as an accountant necessarily wouldn't. Artists are unafraid to take risks and therefore more willing to cut a rug on the dance floor. And artists are so passionate about their work, you can only imagine dating one. It's no surprise that Artscope was more than happy to be on hand at Guilt nightclub last week to be a part of a fun filled, art extravaganza hosted by RAW:natural born artists in Boston. What is RAW? RAW is an artist run organization, providing independent artists of varying mediums and genres an audience as well as resources they may be without. "RAW educates emerging artists through seminars, workshops and insight to further the knowledge of their industry. RAW connects them with one another so that they might grow … [Read more...] about RAW Fusion: Emerging Talent at Your Local Nightclub