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
Artscope Online
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
New Happenings at the New Art Center in Newton
by Sara Farizan NEWTONVILLE-Were there no signs outside to indicate otherwise, one might assume the New Art Center in Newton was a church with a congregation including curious children, emerging artists and enthusiastic aficionados. But since the late 70's, the non-profit New Art Center has been more than a suburban community art center and finds itself as a major contender in cutting edge, mixed media gallery exhibitions. Case in point, not many community art centers would have a show devoted to Heavy Metal, where skulls and grim reapers reside in the main gallery. "We Still See the Black" will be in the main gallery until October 14th featuring artists who draw inspiration from Heavy Metal album art, song lyrics and the sub-culture that amps up all kinds of emotions. Dark, gothic and gorgeous, many of the pieces are visceral, violent, melancholy and embody Heavy Metal so perfectly … [Read more...] about New Happenings at the New Art Center in Newton
Smooth and Smoky at Vessels Gallery, Boston
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