By James Foritano CAMBRIDGE, Ma -- Charlie Baker, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ very tall governor, is standing at a podium in the lobby of LabCentral, deep in the heart of the Kendall Square Innovation District and giving his bipartisan blessing to LabCentral's new 42,000 square foot expansion in Cambridge, Mass. I'm here as an emissary of Artscope because this expansion is about more than feet and inches, more than new shared lab space for worthy startups. It's also about art, and in this instance, specifically "Gallery 1832," which stretches from one end to the other of a long white corridor just upstairs from this ceremonious lobby. "Wait a minute!" you might think, laboratories fitted out with the latest equipment to enable the inspiration of scientific, of entrepreneurial minds while art is banished to a corridor! Perhaps I misspoke. Let's say instead a busy "lane" … [Read more...] about Gallery 1832 at LabCentral’s Grand Opening
Visual Arts
Boston’s Public Art Wow Factor
By Suzanne Volmer BOSTON, MA -- In Boston, and globally, Public Art is focused on placemaking. This means there is an active shaping of identity to build community and to foster relationship with environment. Philadelphia pioneered the Percent for Art policy in the United States and today it is a world-class art destination with exceptional outdoor sculptures. In a percentage for art program, part of the building costs are dedicated to art in public space and that figure is customarily one percent of the total. The experience of Public Art in Philadelphia is that it fits effortlessly into the landscape and enhances the environment. Chicago’s sophisticated Percent for Art program has used the concept to bring a human dimension to vast plazas below its skyscrapers and planners have chosen permanent sculptures by Blue Chip artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Pablo … [Read more...] about Boston’s Public Art Wow Factor
Constellations at Central Square Theater
By James Foritano CAMBRIDGE, MA -- The current play produced by the Underground Railway Theater at The Central Square Theater is a serious and not-so-serious remake of romantic love, dating and destiny in the light of the latest cosmic discoveries. Award-winning English playwright Nick Payne was inspired to write “Constellations” after watching a NOVA program about the startling idea being seriously considered by quantum physics that our “universe” may actually be a “multiverse” of parallel universes in which everything and everyone are constantly being duplicated as we speak — and act, live — and die. Taking this revolutionary idea out of the test tube and applying it to a present-day artisan bee-keeper, Roland, played by Nael Nacer, and quantum physicist, Marianne, played by Marianna Bassham, speeds up and splits up the eternal present of “hooking up”/“settling down” … [Read more...] about Constellations at Central Square Theater
Jeannie Motherwell: Pour. Push. Layer. at Rafius Fane Gallery
By James Foritano https://youtu.be/KJAkFb9NwNM Boston, MASS. -- Jeannie Motherwell’s, fluid, shape-shifting exhibition, “Pour. Push. Layer.” at the Rafius Fane Gallery through October 22, stands in piquant juxtaposition to its, solid, four-square surroundings at 460 Harrison Ave. The gallery is located in the eastern end of a long, grey, brawny stone building in the very heart of Boston’s SoWa district. Like its mate, 450 Harrison Ave., which sits just across a wide pedestrian alley filled with art watchers and people watchers, it is, block by block, dedicated to a Victorian love of heavy lifting and solid foundations. One can almost hear the grunts of the workmen as they unload railroad cars bearing laboriously quarried granite from near and far when it was first built; you almost sense the satisfaction of architect/engineers dusting off their hands to pronounce: “Well, that’s … [Read more...] about Jeannie Motherwell: Pour. Push. Layer. at Rafius Fane Gallery
SOWA FALL PREVIEW: CHANGES IN THE AIR
By Suzanne Volmer Boston, MA - From the dusty landscape of the Big Dig, the SoWa Art+Design District emerged as an accessible phenomenon to become the ‘it” location for contemporary art galleries in Boston. SoWa is buzzing on First Friday when galleries have their openings from 5-9 p.m. The public is, of course, welcome during other stated business days; however, First Fridays have a nice block party vibe that is sophisticated and bohemian, with evenings that are fun with family and friends, solo or as a date night activity. Harrison Avenue’s Thayer Street block is a pedestrian promenade pinched between two nearly identical buildings numbered 450 and 560 Harrison Avenue. The promenade stretches straight through to Albany Street. It is landscaped to create a sense of place framing architectural characteristics like spatial openness, which is achieved by a subterranean undercut to … [Read more...] about SOWA FALL PREVIEW: CHANGES IN THE AIR
BREAKING DOWN SOCIETY’S WALLS: POW! WOW! WORCESTER 2017 BRINGS MURAL ARTISTS TO THE COMMUNITY
By Brian Goslow WORCESTER, MASS. (Sept. 2, 2017) -- As Apexer, who hails from San Francisco, was painting “Thank you Sever Street!” on one of the two walls he had just completed for the Pow! Wow! Worcester 2017 international mural festival at the Fruit-Sever Apartment complex, a woman walking through the parking lot noted, “My mother has lived here for 35 years and it’s never seen the attention it’s gotten from this.” On the other side of the building, Cartoes, from China, was helping a young girl fix the braids in her hair as her brother came over to talk. A few moments later, she was posing for a selfie with a man who told her that she had come to feel like family in the week she had been painting her mural of three women. Nine days earlier, Pow! Wow! Worcester had held its kick-off party at the nearby Elm Park Community School which would receive 15 murals by artists from around … [Read more...] about BREAKING DOWN SOCIETY’S WALLS: POW! WOW! WORCESTER 2017 BRINGS MURAL ARTISTS TO THE COMMUNITY