New Bedford’s AHA! (Art, history, and architecture) Night is a monthly community event that highlights the rich community of New Bedford with an emphasis on the arts. In honor of pride month, June’s theme was Pride. The city was buzzing and Artscope was there to check it out! June’s AHA featured three new exhibitions. Jane O’Hara’s “State of the Union” had its opening night at the New Bedford Art Museum. With a focus on animal advocacy, each state was represented in an acrylic painting highlighting animal rights within that state. Fifty-one thought-provoking paintings now hang on the walls and encourage museumgoers to think about animal rights in their state. This exhibit runs through August 20, 2023. “Ira: 30 Years of Standing Still” is a retrospective exhibition honoring Ira Cohen, who recently passed was a live model for art students at UMass Dartmouth for over 30 years. Cohen … [Read more...] about CELEBRATING ART, HISTORY, AND ARCHITECTURE: NEXT AHA! NEW BEDFORD SCHEDULED FOR JULY 13
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Inspired Lagomorphs: Rabbits and Hares in Contemporary Craft exhibition opens at Fuller Craft Museum
Whether you think of Bugs Bunny, Peter Rabbit, The Easter Bunny, Alice in Wonderland or a collection of other mystical bunny creatures, rabbits and hares hold a dear spot in the hearts of many story lovers. Representing luck, fertility, abundance and other hopeful feelings, rabbits are important in many cultures around the world. “Lagomorphs: Rabbits and Hares in Contemporary Craft,” which recently opened at Fuller Craft Museum, drew its inspiration from the Chinese zodiac calendar where 2023 marks the year of the rabbit. In Chinese culture, the rabbit is clever, creative, ambitious and a peace maker. In the 18-month process of putting this exhibit together, Curator Beth McLaughlin sought after a collection of art that would highlight the different interpretations of the rabbit. Linda Kindler Priest focused on the movement of the rabbit in her wearable sculpture collection, “6 Hairs in … [Read more...] about Inspired Lagomorphs: Rabbits and Hares in Contemporary Craft exhibition opens at Fuller Craft Museum
Audrey Goldstein’s “Intimate Toxicities” at Gallery Kayafas
Painterly relief constructs by Audrey Goldstein in her show “Intimate Toxicities,” on view through June 10 at Gallery Kayafas in Boston’s SoWa District, build upon benchmarks in contemporary art, creating a dialogue of continuum. Her “Conversation Quilt” has kinship with Robert Rauschenberg’s combine sensibility notably “Ram” (1959) and “Interloper” (1982). Goldstein’s approach toward poetic balance, roaming exploration of quintessential American landscape and the world, relates to his thinking, but a difference is Goldstein’s aesthetic lens is trained on recent global ecological disturbances dramatically re-shaping the ideal. The centerpiece of Goldstein’s show, “Conversation Quilt,” is her largest combine and is presented in a dedicated exhibition room at Gallery Kayafas. Physically attached to the wall, it has a large protuberance of quilted unbleached muslin that pushes out onto the … [Read more...] about Audrey Goldstein’s “Intimate Toxicities” at Gallery Kayafas
A DELIGHTFUL EXPLORATION: “FRONTIERS OF IMPRESSIONISM” AT WORCESTER ART MUSEUM
Impressionism! Everyone’s favorite style of painting! Gorgeous, elegant women at play, sun-dappled seascapes, white fluffy clouds, exotic places and foreign people with nary a care in the world. “Frontiers of Impressionism” at the Worcester Art Museum is a delightful exploration of the reach of Impressionism beyond the core of French inventors of the style. Many American painters are included; Winslow Homer, Frank Benson, Thomas Cole, DeWitt Parshall, Edmund Charles Tarbell and others. WAM’s curator, Claire C Whitner, searched through the museum’s holdings to find these gems. She broadened the definition of “Impressionism” to include artists who were not French but who painted outdoors in an immediate fresh manner, often using a lighter paint palette, brushy paint strokes and casual contemporary subjects. Thus, Winslow Homer’s 1892 masterpiece, “Coast in Winter,” is included alongside … [Read more...] about A DELIGHTFUL EXPLORATION: “FRONTIERS OF IMPRESSIONISM” AT WORCESTER ART MUSEUM
SPEAKEASY STAGE BRINGS “WILD GOOSE DREAMS” TO THE BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Authored by Hansol Jung, and directed by SeonJae Kim, “Wild Goose Dreams,” currently playing in the Roberts Studio Theatre of the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, is the acting out of a love affair between two Koreans. One, from the north, is Yoo Nanhee, a dutiful daughter living in the south after a tortuous escape, played by Eunji Lim. The other, Guk Minsung, acted by Jeffrey Song, tries to be a dutiful father holding a job in South Korea so that he can send money back to his wife and daughter in Connecticut, thereby enabling them to navigate the choppy seas of American capitalism. What makes their affair interesting, indeed captivating, is the balancing act both the principles must perform at every moment of their affair between eking out a living and living in a state as near as possible to romance, even, not to be corny, ‘True Love.’ On one … [Read more...] about SPEAKEASY STAGE BRINGS “WILD GOOSE DREAMS” TO THE BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS
MAAN EXPOSES CENTRAL STRUGGLES OF SHRINKING BUT NOT YET WIDELY TOLERANT WORLD IN JADO JEHAD AT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE
It’s a very intelligent play, is “Jado Jehad.” And it certainly shows — especially in the character of the Pakistani grandmother, Manzoor — how powerful culture is in both protecting us from life’s vicissitudes and exposing us to the torments of our own and the bearers of other cultures — especially if these other-culture bearers are family, to wit, Manzoor’s own daughter and grand-daughter. Fatima A. Maan’s play was performed at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre from February 16 through 26. It was directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. Manzoor, played by Jyoti Daniere, has been dunked from a childhood in less global times in an old and highly complex culture to the nerve-endings of every tip of every finger. What she is not prepared for is an American-educated grand-daughter and a daughter whose upbringing was somehow, even without a stay in America, affected by the hegemony of … [Read more...] about MAAN EXPOSES CENTRAL STRUGGLES OF SHRINKING BUT NOT YET WIDELY TOLERANT WORLD IN JADO JEHAD AT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE