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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2020

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Artscope Online

DISCOVERING KITH + KIN: FRIENDS AND MENTORS OF LESLEY MFA

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

An art mentor is someone who motivates and inspires a fellow artist to experiment, to sketch out their goals on an empty canvas, painting their dream lives in all colors. Their creative minds blend together and connect and at Lesley University, the Art and Design school is celebrating its 30th graduating class from its low-residency Visual Arts MFA program, where mentors and visiting lecturers and faculty all encompass this encouraging, patient and driven atmosphere of artistic vision. The work of these advisors, the very people who provided creative sparks in Lesley’s students, is now exhibited in a show titled “Kith + Kin: Friends and Mentors of Lesley MFA.” Upon entering the wide-open gallery with wall-length windows overlooking bustling Mass Ave., guests are immediately welcomed into a serene space. Along the back wall, a pear-shaped sculpture by Candice Ivy titled “Honey From … [Read more...] about DISCOVERING KITH + KIN: FRIENDS AND MENTORS OF LESLEY MFA

Revealing the Will of Water: Andy Goldsworthy’s Watershed Opens at deCordova

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Meredith Cutler

It’s one of the first truly brisk days of autumn at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The sun sparkles as icy gusts of wind drive fallen leaves into wild, calligraphic trajectories across Waleska’s Way. The ADA-compliant, accessible stone path leads down the park’s pond-side hill to Andy Goldsworthy’s Watershed, a permanent, site-specific installation which opened to the public on November 9, 2019. The acclaimed British land artist has made his mark on this planet by working directly with natural materials, natural forces and the landscape – creating works that challenge the viewer’s perspective on nature, time, weather and permanence. Built partially embedded into the hill just below the deCordova’s rear parking lot, the functionality and engineering behind Watershed is, like many natural processes, hidden from view. It’s a modest space – a shed true to its name and from … [Read more...] about Revealing the Will of Water: Andy Goldsworthy’s Watershed Opens at deCordova

THE ARLEKIN PLAYERS PLAY CHEKHOV’S THE SEAGULL

// Artscope Online, Theatre

by James Foritano

Most of the Chekhov dramas I recall seeing on other stages were what I remember as ‘drawing room’ comedies where aristocratic Russians arrived in their own coaches to doff fur coats and silk wraps to deferential servants and fall into each other arms — their host presiding warmly. As I sit at my desk, my memory of the Arlekin Player’s guests is altogether different: gone are the furs and silk, the languorous embraces, the sips of champagne. Instead I’m remembering guests who relished undressing and then skinning their opposites while they clinked goblets of each other’s blood, grinning toothily. Oh, the stage directions stipulated a mansion in the countryside and woods surrounding a tranquil lake, but these directions were not interpreted literally. And who amongst those thirsty cannibals spared a glance at the lake, filled with (Ugh!) weak water, let alone wandered its … [Read more...] about THE ARLEKIN PLAYERS PLAY CHEKHOV’S THE SEAGULL

NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AT THREE STONES GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Like a brook trout swimming towards a feathery fly lure in a Berkshire stream, visitors of Three Stones Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts will find themselves reeled into the colorful watercolor paintings of such delicate flies by Gail Burr. Each painting is unique, featuring a hyper-realistic rendition of fishing flies with their reflective metal hooks, poly-yarn and feather quills. Some look spiky and menacing, like “Sparkle Soft Hackle” with long dark strands protruding from its body of green fibers, while others like “Backcountry Kinky Muddler” appear softer with a light gray fur deep green eye at the front. Three Stones gallery manager Lyca Blume described how watercolor paintings generally cover a larger area or landscape with noticeable brush strokes, but Burr’s collection uses watercolor in each careful detail. The artist herself “appreciate[s] that each fly is a tiny unique … [Read more...] about NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AT THREE STONES GALLERY

ROOTED/UPROOTED: TREES AND ARTISTS AT ELGA WIMMER PCC GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Rooted/UpRooted, curated by Roya Khadjavi and Massoud Nader, which is on view from November 12 through 25 at Elga Wimmer PCC Gallery, New York, New York, connects trees, whose roots are secured deep in the earth with those who come from a place, in this case Iran, whose roots also run deep. Whereas tree roots remain in one place, the Iranian artists whose work is displayed here have been uprooted from their land, but maintain their cultural and historical roots, showing their memories and history in their work. In Omid Mohkami’s “Absence Series, a heart-rending photograph of a curved road with an unoccupied chair in its center and a dress stuck on barbed wire makes us wonder where the road leads and carries those who follow it, as they say in Maine, away. In another of Mohkami’s black and white photographs, a circle of chairs, occupied by no one, looking as if the master and his … [Read more...] about ROOTED/UPROOTED: TREES AND ARTISTS AT ELGA WIMMER PCC GALLERY

ISANGO ENSEMBLE PLAYS MOZART’S THE MAGIC FLUTE AT EMERSON

// Artscope Online, Music

by James Foritano

When Mozart composed The Magic Flute in Vienna in 1791, he hoped it would become as popular as he thought it should. It did. First it conquered Vienna, then the other great cities of Europe fell to its enchanting mix of singing, dancing and fairy-tale plot. Not long ago, a grade schooler in Cape Town, South Africa, returned home after having seen a student production and vented enthusiastically to his mother that her troupe Isango Ensemble should try it on. They did. And we were lucky enough to be at its performance at Emerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre on opening night. Isango, an all-black troupe, has inherited tribal traditions rich in dancing, singing, magic and shrewd psychology that are more than a match to communicate the nuances of “The Magic Flute,” conceived in Europe of universals that strike the heart and mind globally. The costumes are minimal, richly African, and … [Read more...] about ISANGO ENSEMBLE PLAYS MOZART’S THE MAGIC FLUTE AT EMERSON