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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2023

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Artscope Online

Roundup: Art Basel, Volta, and Kunstmuseum Basel: Who Wins?

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online

by Nancy Nesvet

It was pretty much a tie for me as to which fair was better, Art Basel or Volta Basel. Whereas Art Basel did little to startle, presumably deeming more serious (and environmental) artwork more appealing to buyers, including my favorites: Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Chromogenic print, “Optiks, 224,” 2018, at Marian Goodman Gallery, with blues and greens added to his formerly mainly black, white and gray palette; Njideka Akunyili’s Crosby’s “Garden Party,” 2019, acrylic, colored pencil, collage and transfers on paper, at Victoria Miro, and best of all for me, Alex De Corte’s “The End,” 2022, velvet, EPS, thread, at Sadie Coles HQ, London. I want that flowered wreath permanently in my house.

Volta Basel similarly provided beautiful landscapes and glorious depictions of people and the environment for younger and less wealthy buyers to take home with them. Charlie Smith (London) won my heart at Volta with Emma Bennett’s 2022 oil on canvas landscape foregrounded with roses called “(Towards) full fulcrum.” A close second was “Wild Night: Are You Shining Just for Me?,” Yuri Cataniya’s “Crypto Girls,” 2021, black bounded ground covered with a wild array of colorful blooms, in a very Victorian style comprising the latest work of the black flowers secret garden project on show in Volta.

At the Unlimited section, where large installations are shown by individual artists, I was most impressed by Lelong-sponsored artist Leonardo Drew’s cavalcade of black ephemera, colored paper and shards of material seemingly blown up and caught against the white divider wall. The 90-degree pile seemed oddly ordered in shape leading to the merging of chaos and order of the universe. At the galleries sector of Art Basel, my pick was Ed Ruscha’s “Light Leaks,” 2003, acrylic on canvas, and Cristina BanBan’s “Cuattro Mujeres, 2003, oil and oil stick on linen, at Skarstedt, recalling Picasso but with contemporary figures.

But best of all for me in Basel last week was the Picasso/El Greco show at the Kunstmuseum Basel. With paintings of Picasso and El Greco coupled to show the influence El Greco had on Picasso, El Greco’s work enthralled, with the portrait’s eyes searing through me, that layered paint carrying the gaze through human matter to reach hearts, whereas Picasso’s figured reached mind. I left that show unable to consider any other artwork as its effect was so large. Luckily, the day was late. Another Art Basel, a smaller Art Basel, a better Art Basel and the best museum show I have seen in Basel. So, who wins? Sorry to the modern masters, but hands down, it’s El Greco for me.

(Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 takes place on December 1 through 3 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, 1910 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, Florida. For more information, visit artbasel.com.)

EXIGENCY ON FULL VIEW: PEOPLE OVER TECHNOLOGY PREVAILS AS ART BASEL 2022 OPENS

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Arriving Tuesday morning, unfortunately missing the initial press and VIP preview days at Art Basel 2022 in Basel, Switzerland, I became part of the larger crowd vying for the attention of artists and gallery owners at the revived fair following Covid interruptions and re-schedulings. Art was selling at multiple booths, but, and this is the caveat: the best pieces were selling quickly while those of lesser quality and often merely picking up on jokes of the past languished. The animal covered with bananas recalling an old joke was ignored. I found multiple pieces, however, that made me smile, incorporating bright colors and ingenious forms.

Resulting undoubtedly from the Covid prohibitions on traveling, much of the work reflected the artist’s own community and place. From Leonardo Drew’s gathering of stuff from around his home, collaged into a massive work at Galerie Lelong’s booth to Marcus Selg’s “Mind in the Cave” at Berlin’s GWB Gallery’s booth, that exigency was on full view.

Interestingly, more global visions were the best and the buyers’ preference including the skyscape at Sfeir-Semler by renowned Lebanese artist, Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Air Conditioning, 2022, inkjet print on Alu-Dibond, Edition 6+2 AP) whose unique interpretation of particular sonic experience, reflected in the intensity of colors brings literally illustrating the volume of sound and the pollution of the soundscape, as the artist wrote, it’s back to artistic rather than technological interpretations (conceding that a paintbrush is technology, but of a basic kind). I was reminded of Mark Dion’s work, gathering material along the Hudson River in New York, where he resides, and of the German artist Anselm Kiefer whose work, “Anselm Kiefer paints Venice” is currently prominently featured in an exhibition in Venice, Italy and whose earlier work collaging remnants of earlier German civilization of the 20th century established a new genre, to which Leonardo Drew’s work clearly belongs.

People over technology definitely prevails in the art I saw at Art Basel. Perhaps by showing the detritus of civilization, leading to change, and the victory of people over technology, we are back to caring about each other in a most human way.

(Art Basel 2022 takes place from June 16-19 at Messe Basel, Messeplatz 10, 4058 Basel, Switzerland. For more information, visit artbasel.com/basel.)

ALVIN AILEY THEATRE KEEPS AMERICAN DANCE MOVING; “LET’S DANCE BOSTON!” CAPS CELEBRITY SERIES SEASON

// Artscope Online, Theatre

by James Foritano

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre was closing a very short run here in Boston, only four performances at the Boch Center Wang Theater from April 28-May 1 when my wife Madeleine and I sat together on aisle seats, row L for the Sunday matinee.

It was a gorgeously warm and sunny spring day as we walked down Tremont Street from the Park Street Red Line stop, savoring views of Boston Common budding into a feast of green as troops of students were passing us by in gossamer spring dresses with gossamer youth gaiety.

It was no sacrifice at all to enter the indoor spaces of a theater since we’d already had a very pleasant walk and Alvin Ailey Dance is always a rare, complex pleasure.

They always have so many layered artistic impressions that they always make it seem, to this writer, as though he’d have to have a suite of hands all typing at once to articulate his thoughts.

Fortunately, my unconscious came to my aid as I pillowed down to awaken with two organizing rubrics in my sleepy head: One was an old song title: “Doing the Herky Jerky.” And the other, the title of a rather gruesome children’s game: “We All Fall Down Dead.”

What put the first title in my head was a style of dance, at once gracious and staccato, the feet of the dancers taking small precise steps, then retracting their feet from those footprints as though the boards of the stage were as hot as the stage lights. As the song goes: “You put your left foot in; you take your left foot out. Doing the Herky Jerky is what it’s all about…”

Make no mistake, though, that these dancers looked anything like me and my friends as we danced the steps of the song: on stage, their agility, their cat-like quickness left “jerkiness” far behind; their feet just seem to vanish with the merest hint of a jerk.

It was mesmerizing. Sitting us up straight as we looked for the transition which, against physics, swallowed up the intervening time between multiple steps.

Then we looked for hints of motion in the hips, the chest, the angle of the head, and again found the only barest hints that prodded us to wonder how, besides endless practice, their bodies could so move as quickly as their dancer’s wills.

Then the “how?” turned to the even more intriguing question: “Why?”

Fortunately, a speaking style, of dance, of rhetoric of anything, speaks through multiple parts.

The next part of the esthetic of Alvin Ailey Dancers moved from the feet to whole limbs which often jittered from finger-tips to shoulders, from toes to head as if experiencing panic or ecstasy so complete it ran along the outsides of their bodies, only to return inside to its source: the outside was the sauce; the inside the spring, so to speak.

What capped off this speaking style for me was a common trope of returning to the floor of the stage as if drawing strength from the ‘earth’ of the boards.

Dancers who could stay aloft for moments, bird-like, often completed a connected series of flight moves unaccountably on their backs or sides in a position that for moments looked so very helpless that their next move — springing to their feet seemingly without the aid of arms or legs — looked like a miracle.

I credit this extraordinary style of dance, so eloquent of the Black experience in America of survival by cat-like quickness, hard physical work, and, above all — no pun intended — rebounding with re-doubled energy from each time their life-force is kicked to the floor below, to the artistry of choreographer Robert Battle, who was groomed for and inherited this mantle from Alvin Ailey himself.

Mr. Battle is a choreographer for this new century non-plus ultra. We await his coming to Boston with his dance troupe again.

(The next Celebrity Series of Boston presentations is “Let’s Dance Boston!” from May 11 through 15 on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. For details on this event, upcoming performances and the recently-announced 2022/23 schedule and ticket packages, visit celebrityseries.org.)

“THE POWER TO ELICIT A VISCERAL RESPONSE”: THE CAMBRIDGE ART ASSOCIATION’S 2022 MEMBER’S PRIZE SHOW

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Sandra Tirado

This year’s 2022 Members Prize Show provided by Cambridge Art Association is held at Kathryn Schultz Gallery in Cambridge, MA as well as online. The exhibit presents artwork from members of the Cambridge Arts Association — from artists and associate artists to students — to win the members prize and also offers viewers the chance to take home priced artwork to add to their collections should they fall in love with a piece. The exhibit is presented in two parts: although Show 1 has passed, there is still a chance for you to see the artists presented in Show 2, which is running until April 16 and open to the public free of charge.

Independent curator and art consultant Beth Kantrowitz, juror for the show, wrote in the show’s introduction, “I found myself naturally sorting submissions into two groups of works. I did not separate the works into traditional categories such as landscapes, portraiture, or abstraction. Rather, I chose works that would be in conversation with one another on the gallery walls, creating two coherent exhibitions. That varied pieces that spoke to me shared a crucial characteristic — the power to elicit a visceral response.”

Visiting the exhibit, I was impressed by the array of talent. One particular piece that caught my eye was Susan Murie’s “Voyage #10,” a cyanotype on paper, including pencil and ink. Murie has a background in gardening which inspires many of her pieces, and so one can easily see how encapsulated nature is within her art.

When it comes to cyanotype prints and their unpredictability in quality or outcome once the printing process completes, it’s amazing to see how clear and sharp Murie’s “Voyage #10: is; something that takes skill in photography, let alone printing. A cascade of flora trails down the print, adding contrast to the negative space backdropping the piece. Accents of almost-gold knotted lines enhance the print with a bit more color, balancing out what otherwise would be an overwhelming presence of blue which is the cyanotype trademark; the knotted lines are a beautiful addition on Murie’s part that really makes the piece glow that much more.

With this piece, you get the impression that you are looking through glass, while the object in the background — what appears to be a suitcase with colorful detailing of floral print — reflects as if from behind you. It’s a piece I found myself reflecting on for a moment, which is a testament to Murie’s artistry. I asked her a few questions on her work

SANDRA TIRADO: What do you dream ‘Voyage #10’ will mean to others?

SUSAN MURIE: I hope they will see the beauty in it and in the color blue. Blue has long been used to convey feelings of calmness, distance and divinity as well as many other uses and meanings throughout history. Achieving a certain Prussian blue from my cyanotype process is one of the main goals. I love hearing what people see and feel from viewing my work!

ST: How was your experience creating this piece?

SM: I photograph each element in my work and I have a large archive of images to choose from when I begin a new piece. Each one is hand coated with a UV light sensitive solution and then dried overnight. The next day I look through my archives and begin to compose the piece on the coated paper. I have a loose idea of what I want to do. I find I work with certain imagery for a period of time, creating a body of work. Currently I am working with the vintage suitcase image in ‘Voyage #10’ as well as sailboats, deer and rabbits. Flowers and leaves are almost always in there as well as architectural elements from time to time. I am composing the pieces responding to my own nostalgia and emotion. I kind of let the process flow through me.

Jeannette Atkinson’s oil painting, “Bea’s Pond – November” is another piece worth mentioning. It is painted on an 11” x 14” canvas, although despite its small size it contains a large presence of character. There is no shortage of striking color and exquisite brushstrokes with this painting. It is a scenic, atmospheric piece in which texture and color scheme play a huge role in transcribing emotion in the viewer — and it did just that as I viewed it.

Amid these beautiful pieces displayed on the gallery walls, there are also a few sculptures. Kimberley Harding’s “Empty Nest,” is a fragile-esque sculpture made from old checks, old address labels, and membership cards and ID’s. The “nest” is held together with glue and gouache. I found this statement piece clever and innovative; to me it echoes the idea of ancient vs. modern times on a personal level and really makes you take a moment to reflect on its metaphoric presentation.

Other notable works include B. Glee Lucas’ “Erased,” a magnificent painting full of motion and life; Jim Kociuba’s “Birch Ledge,” one of the larger pieces in the show with a beautiful array of acrylic colors in pixelated fashion to reveal sunlight filtering through trees; and Bridie Wolejko’s “Hecate,” a wondrous mixed media piece collaged with different images to personify a modern goddess Hecate. Lastly, a special honorable mention to this year’s Artist of the Year winners: Paul Beckingham, “Spring Bouquet”; Chelsea Bradway, “The Looking Glass”; Miren Etcheverry, “Mamette”; Richard Hackel, “Johnson Cove, Surrounded”; and Wiley Holton, “Only Time Will Tell.”

The Cambridge Art Association has the pleasure to display such talented creatives and we encourage viewers to partake in witnessing the exhibit, be it in person or online.

The complete list of artists being exhibited for “Show 2” are Susan Alport, Cynthia Andrews, Louise Arnold, Jeannette Atkinson, Giliane Bader, Nancy Beams, Paul Beckingham, Anne Beinecke, Sharon Berke, Chelsea Bradway, Diane Francis, Erik Gehring, Richard Hackel, Kimberley Harding, Jim Kociuba, Andromeda Lisle, B. Glee Lucas, Keara McHaffie, Susan Murie, Paul Murray, Diane Novetsky, Ant Oraloglu, Cynthia Pritchard, Vanessa Thompson, Kim Triedman, Stephanie Warburg and Susie White.

(“The 2022 CAA Members Prize Show, Show 2,” continues through April 16 at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery, 25 Lowell St., Cambridge, Massachusetts. The gallery is open for viewing Tuesday through Friday from noon-4 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, call (617) 876-0246.)

 

A TRIBUTE TO A CELEBRATED PUBLIC ARTIST AND SCULPTOR: NANCY SCHÖN

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Claudia Fiks

Newton Community Pride relying on the power of the arts, promoted a captivating way to bring art lovers and supporters together in this transitional, almost post-pandemic world. On March 30, friends, artists, Newton’s representatives, guests and families celebrated Nancy Schön’s extensive artistic career and outstanding accomplishments.

Newton-based legendary artist Nancy Schön continues to brighten the scene. Nancy welcomed her audience with her unique, well-known warmth and charisma by sharing insightful stories and highlights of her life as an artist, dedicated mother and beloved grandmother. Best known for the charming, iconic landmark, “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture located at the Boston Public Garden since 1987, Nancy’s work can be seen all over Boston, New England and in Moscow, where the only replica of the ducklings stands as a gift from United States First Lady Barbara Bush to Soviet First Lady Raisa Gorbachev. Another famous sculpture, well-known to Bostonians and tourists, is the Tortoise and Hare at Copley Square. It was commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boston Marathon. The sculpture, a tribute to the runners from all over the world who have participated in this oldest road race in America, was inspired by Aesop’s fable as the perfect metaphor, slow and steady wins the race.

Jim Braude, host of Greater Boston and co-host of Boston Public Radio, a longtime fan of Nancy’s work and persona, hosted the conversation in a witty and intimate dialog, amusing and entertaining the audience. Guests heard and lived Nancy’s memories learning first-hand updates of her still very active daily practices.

The legacy of this fantastic woman artist producing hundreds of artworks for over seven decades cannot be summarized in one evening. Still, Nancy was able to remind us why her work fascinates us all. She introduced one of her new works still in progress, and it was available and on view right next to her on the stage. The unfinished work is a ceramic prototype of a soldier’s boot, with the front of the boot-shaped like a bear’s mouth with large pointy fangs, ready to bite and step on a tiny nightingale bird. The Nightingale is a small bird with a thunderous loud song, and it is Ukraine’s national bird. The bear is a symbol for Russia. Nancy never refrained from expressing political and social matters through her work.

In her studio, one of her favorite places to be and where she still works daily is where the artwork comes into existence. From her creative mind to drawings, then to a maquette on wax, to a clay form, and finally, to the foundry, none of her work lacks strong symbolism. Some of her sculptures reflect and appeal to racial justice, domestic violence, human rights abuses, and human resilience and depict the need for love, respect, hope, and peace. Nancy’s work is layered with hidden messages that make us viewers confront our perceptions and question our understandings and fears.

Nancy has mastered tools for decades and has made art since high school. Inspiration comes from her father, who was a florist, and such motivation continues and transcends to the next generations of artists, including her daughters and granddaughters. The Schön family is currently working together, a group of seven women artists, creating work in various mediums that centers on seven species: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. The work explores how each plant’s virtues embody and reflect the interconnected growth in their family of Jewish women artists. A beautiful dialog and permanent connection sealed between the past, present and future.

Newton Community Pride (NCP), founded by volunteers in 1989, is a non-profit organization building community through free arts and culture programming, beautification projects and volunteerism. Gloria Gavin, NCP president, organized this wonderful event at Showcase SuperLux at The Street, Chestnut Hill. Proceeds from the evening will support Newton Community Pride and the Nancy Quint Schön Arts Scholarship.

“Art is the soul of who we are. It’s part of who we are as human beings, it separates us from animals, is part of the fabric of being a human being“. — Nancy Schön

WOMEN CAN HAVE IT ALL — A CELEBRATION THROUGH THE ART OF Zeynab Movahed AT High Line Nine Gallery

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Running from April 5 through 18, Roya Khadjavi Projects brings Iranian woman artist Zeynab Movahed to High Line Nine Gallery 9.1 in New York City. Movahed’s work celebrates women’s freedom in moving about her day, including social and family commitments in the Tehran metropolis of her residency by women clearly in control of their present and future.

Reflecting the unstable societal situation present in Iran and worldwide, the artist takes us on a Joycian tour of places where women socialize in Iran. Realizing that a reflection can be a memory of the past or an immediate vision of the present, that cellphone reflection becomes a past vision as soon as it is recorded or sent, with the present taking over immediately afterwards. The paintings show the artist’s reflection in her cellphone image and society’s reflection of her.

By painting women together and alone in cafes, Movahed cracks the glass to reveal women freely associating in cafes, amid burgeoning foliage, unafraid and undeniably visible. The women are careful to mask, protecting their health during covid, but rarely veil to satisfy religious demands. They hold their cellphones in front of them, surveilling, but only allowing those to whom they speak and show their face to see them. We become those chosen to see their painted thoughts, dreams and reality. Unlike the story of Anarkali in Lahore, women are no longer immured if seen enjoying themselves, but here are seen taking full part in society and by themselves.

Clearly, the paintings challenge what is seen; the woman in the car, seat belt unbuckled, water bottle next to her, out for a joy ride or voyage alone, or the woman, hair askew, unveiled, sitting unaccompanied at a café counter, tapping away at her phone, communicating with someone on the other end of the phone, or the lone unveiled women, partaking of fruit displayed for only her on a brick patio.

The work is the essence of the independent woman, challenging Iranian stereotypes. The only paintings in the show not of sole women include two women, talking together in sisterhood amidst ancient, monumental buildings; two women clearly at home behind trees growing large and strong, with bookcases filled with models of modern houses, perhaps to be lived in without companions, and one of children in a car, honoring the mother’s commitment to carpooling the children amidst the social and professional lives they lead.

We are observing the full lives of women during the pandemic, carpooling, socializing, carrying on normal domestic duties of washing dishes, working professionally and reflecting on all that is and will be.

(“Zeynab Movahed: Unstable Conditions” runs from April 5 through April 18 at High Line Nine Gallery 9.1, 507 West 27th St., New York, N.Y.; the show’s opening reception will be held on Tuesday, April 5, from 4-8 p.m. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon-6 p.m. For more information, visit https://highlinenine.org).