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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2022

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Visual Arts

SURvIVING THE LONELINESS OF COVID: LIZ SHEPHERD’S POWERFUL UNGATHERED AT BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Beth Neville

Rare is the contemporary artist who can make the “personal” universal. Liz Shepherd is one of these special artists. She experienced agonies with Covid-19: her contraction of the virus, loss of creative time, total isolation and a non-Thanksgiving. Her brush with death, loneliness and confusion is translated into a positive vision at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, one all viewers may relate to. Shepherd is an artist who has spent decades exploring many media, and is in total control of her craft. She confidently mixes soft-media papier-mâché with the unyielding hardness of welded steel. A lost Thanksgiving meal is her symbol for the devastation wrought by the virus. Three empty black-wire chairs surround a non-existent table. An exquisitely crafted paper pitcher, a serving bowl and ladle float in the air, Empty placemats hang nearby. On a wall close-by, 16 colorful … [Read more...] about SURvIVING THE LONELINESS OF COVID: LIZ SHEPHERD’S POWERFUL UNGATHERED AT BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY

WORKING IN A MULTITUDE OF MEDIUMS, SOWA ARTIST STEVEN LUSH REFLECTS HIS INFLUENCES

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Jack Lynch

Artist Steven Lush, who operates out of Studio #220 in the SoWa Artists Guild Building at 450 Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End, has led an extraordinary career. His work reflects the extraordinary life and approach towards life as an artist that he took. Born to an artistic family, Lush’s mother was a major influence on his decision to go into art. She was an artist herself as well as a musician. She taught him how to draw and paint when he was five years old, which led to him developing an interest in drawing and ultimately becoming a self-taught artist. Despite his interest in drawing early on in his life, for a period of 15 years, Lush’s work was primarily done in the medium of watercolor on paper. His inspiration to use this medium came from looking at the watercolor work of Winslow Homer in a magazine that his mother owned when he was growing up. Other artists are not … [Read more...] about WORKING IN A MULTITUDE OF MEDIUMS, SOWA ARTIST STEVEN LUSH REFLECTS HIS INFLUENCES

Finding Happiness Together Again At Parcours

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Parcours, in French, means Journey, and the Journey around and in the city of Basel at various sites designated for 12 art installations, was, even online, for me, meaningful and a constant reminder of the still-Pandemic world. Answering the question posed by Parcours’ title, “Can We Find Happiness Together Again?” Samuel Leuenberger, Director of Parcours, led the audience, in person and online, in a resounding Yes, Ja, Si, Oui! Beginning on Monday, September 20, the first day of Art Basel, British artist, Hamish Fulton, who famously climbed Mt. Everest, organized an hour-long participatory walk on the Marktplatz (marketplace). It was a voyage of discovery for Fulton as it was for those who followed him, but also an ethnography of artworks at the Parcours sector of Art Basel. Seeing work displayed on the trail the trekkers pursued was not unlike the voyage we all took this past year, … [Read more...] about Finding Happiness Together Again At Parcours

ART MEETS TECHNOLOGY AT ART BASEL 2021

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Although the first VIP day at Art Basel was crowded, Anna Gav, on the ground, noted that the crowd was younger, the lack of older (and richer) collectors largely due, as they said in conversation with Anna, to fear of contracting Covid 19, and to the intentional limiting of admissions to maintain social distancing. At VOLTA, the crowd was noticeably slimmer, also due to the location away from Art Basel and the limited shuttles for rides offered accounting for intentional emphasis on limited spending by the fairs. Prices of work sold so far at both VOLTA and Art Basel are considerably down, reflecting the absence of major, older collectors and the lower pricing by galleries eager to sell work that they could not at galleries closed due to pandemic restrictions. Due to the wonders of technology, particularly the internet, online, I’ve been able to view the exhibits at the art fairs in … [Read more...] about ART MEETS TECHNOLOGY AT ART BASEL 2021

SLOW AND STEADY AT VOLTA AS ARTISTS SHARE THEIR VISIONS OF A BETTER AND BRIGHTER WORLD

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

With 69 galleries representing five continents, 50 cities and 40 nations, VOLTA Basel 2021 is showing beautiful work. Evoking nature in several exhibitions, it satisfies my and probably your craving for natural beauty amid the emptiness and depressing devastation of cities during Covid. At Charlie Smith, London, artist Dominic Shepherd paintings are inspired by fairy tales, including “Hedge Witch-2021” and “The King is Dead, Long Live the King 2.” As we have all learned, fairy tales can be both delightful and frightening and Shepherd’s paintings attest to that duality. Iranian artists at three galleries new to VOLTA this year, Bavon Gallery, Mohlsen Gallery and Saradipour Gallery (SARAI), repeat the natural beauty motif. At Saradipour Art (SARAI), Mahdieh Abolhasen’s layers of land and history interacting in her grey, drawings encourage a slow, contemplative connection with … [Read more...] about SLOW AND STEADY AT VOLTA AS ARTISTS SHARE THEIR VISIONS OF A BETTER AND BRIGHTER WORLD

THE ART — IS IT CHANGING? LIGON’S STRANGER A PREVIEW OF BASEL 2021’S PROMISE

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

The art world has changed, but it is difficult to determine how or how much. The mainstays are still pursuing age-old projects but new forms are appearing in all the fairs currently in Zurich and Basel. The prelude, (with credit to Kaveh Mojtabai for the musical reference) to the fairs at Basel were an hour away by train or car, in Zurich, affording a much smaller venue for galleries often exhibiting at Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel. Hauser and Wirth’s exhibit at the just ended Zurich Art Fair was exemplary. Glenn Ligon’s “First Contact” large scale diptych from his Stranger Series begun in 1997, printing out excerpts from James Baldwin’s 1953 essay, “A Stranger in the Village,” is relevant not only to the experience of a Black man encountered by villagers who have never seen a Black man before, but also to the present world, where we encounter those different from us. Taking up an … [Read more...] about THE ART — IS IT CHANGING? LIGON’S STRANGER A PREVIEW OF BASEL 2021’S PROMISE