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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2020

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Visual Arts

ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2019 PREVIEW

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Artscope Magazine’s presence at Art Basel Miami Beach 2019 is not the only enterprise growing there this year. Our growth to a booth in the magazine sector mimics that of the international art fair itself. Its latest addition is Meridians, the new sector located in the Grand Ballroom of the Miami Beach Convention Center, Art Basel Miami Beach’s home. With 33 monumental works inside and one outside, Meridians was created to house large-scale installations that Art Basel’s website admits, “can only fit in a museum or art warehouse.” Having reported for Artscope on Art Basels in Miami Beach and Switzerland for the past three years, on the last two Venice Biennales and the Cleveland Biennale, I agree that most collectors do not have room for these large works, so they must go to museums or art warehouses awaiting new owners, governmental or private. Because art collectors and museum … [Read more...] about ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2019 PREVIEW

FLORALISM AT COASTAL CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Suzanne Volmer

Barbara Owen, Alicia Renadette and Kate Blacklock are the artists included in “Floralism” at Newport’s Coastal Contemporary Gallery. Continuing through December 8, the exhibition is a clever exploration of botanical excess and blooming. Gallerist Shari Wechsler approaches the topic as a feminist platform acknowledging nature’s ability to flourish and prevail. As a whole, the content includes fascinating statement art that is also certainly intimate enough for audiences to take home. For client convenience, Wechsler offers the option of purchasing with Art Money that advertises itself as a vehicle to “buy now, pay later.” Before the exhibition, I made a point to visit Alicia Renadette’s studio at Atlantic Mills in Providence specifically to watch the artist and art dealer select for “Floralism.” It was impossible not to notice the volume of materials organized and ready to be … [Read more...] about FLORALISM AT COASTAL CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

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

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