by Brian Goslow Maynard, MA - Back in the mid-1990s, when I was working as events editor for The Worcester Phoenix, one of my favorite venues to cover and visit was Art in the Heart of Maynard, an artist collective from which we never failed to leave with a small creation. While the collective may be long gone, the collective spirit of this town of 10,000 people located approximately 30 miles north-west of Boston is alive and well, with downtown Maynard having recently received official designation as a cultural district — officially known as the Assabet Valley Cultural District — by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The compact, highly walkable area is a collection of galleries, a movie theater (the Fine Arts Theatre Place at 19 Summer St.), the L.L. Beanesque Outdoor Store (24 Nason St.) and a surprisingly large number of dining options. The Maynard Municipal Parking … [Read more...] about FINE ART, FOOD AND GIFTS: DOWNTOWN MAYNARD HAS IT ALL
Visual Arts
MAKING CONNECTIONS: WITH DONNA DODSON
RINGKØBING INTERNATIONAL WOODSCULPTURE SYMPOSIUM IN DENMARK by Donna Dodson Last winter, I was anticipating a quiet summer in my studio. However, on March 21 an invitation to participate in the Ringkøbing International Woodsculpture Symposium in Denmark arrived in my inbox, followed on April 14 by an invitation to the Keelung Artist in Residency project at the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology. That shifted my springtime into high gear, preparing for a summer of international travel, cultural exchange and art-making. Oh, and did I mention that my husband, Andy Moerlein, was also selected to participate in both projects? Our excitement was off the charts. After I arrived at the Billund Airport in Denmark, the cultural minister of Ringkøbing whisked me through the fields and flatlands of the Danish countryside to the coastal town on a fjord where I would … [Read more...] about MAKING CONNECTIONS: WITH DONNA DODSON
SNOWED IN: ARTISTS REFLECT ON IMMINENT CHANGE
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM ATTLEBORO ARTS MUSEUM 86 PARK STREET ATTLEBORO, MASSACHUSETTS SEPTEMBER 16 THROUGH 23 by Suzanne Volmer Inspired by Emily St. John Mandel’s novel “Station Eleven,” “The Calm Before the Storm,” an exhibition of original snow globes at Attleboro Arts Museum, is a short-term show taking place from September 16 through 23 and is the visual art component to the National Endowment for the Arts-funded Big Read initiative taking place this fall in Attleboro, Mass. The exhibition, curated by museum director Mim Brooks Fawcett, explores ideas that arise in relation to concepts brought forward by St. John Mandel’s novel — Attleboro’s Big Read book selection — a dystopian fiction and National Book Award finalist. The exhibition and related programs are funded primarily as a tandem community initiative between the Attleboro Arts Museum and Attleboro … [Read more...] about SNOWED IN: ARTISTS REFLECT ON IMMINENT CHANGE
EXAMINING THE MYTH WITHIN: LOMBARDI’S GODS AND MONSTERS
UNIVERSITY SPOTLIGHT D. DOMINICK LOMBARDI: SAINTS, SINNERS AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS HAMPDEN GALLERY, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST 131 SOUTHWEST CIRCLE, AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS SEPTEMBER 10 THROUGH 29 by J. Fatima Martins There are gods and monsters in each of us. One person’s hero is another person’s villain; as Joseph Campbell famously wrote, “You could be a local god, but for the people whom that local god conquered, you could be the enemy.” In the exhibition statement for “Saints, Sinners and the Collective Unconscious,” artist D. Dominick Lombardi wrote that his work is his “personal freedom.” Our collective history and, therefore, unconscious, is haunted by saviors and destroyers, imaginative human-made entities derived from external and internal emotions and conditions. Our conscious struggle to break free from a mutual and vague imprisonment … [Read more...] about EXAMINING THE MYTH WITHIN: LOMBARDI’S GODS AND MONSTERS
CORNERED: OLIVIA BERNARD
INTERVIEW WHAT LIES BETWEEN, RECENT WORKS BY OLIVIA BERNARD ORESMAN GALLERY BROWN FINE ARTS CENTER SMITH COLLEGE 22 ELM STREET NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS by Elizabeth Michelman Olivia Bernard’s sculpture has always spoken through the fingertips to the whole body. No matter how flat a piece becomes, there’s always another side — and always a sense of inside and outside. It’s tempting to read her small glass panels and attenuated sheets of handmade paper as following within the traditions of abstract or color field painting. But Bernard is neither a painter nor a follower and has no interest in carrying forward the ideological, political or art-historical agenda of abstract painting today. Her 3-D sculpture and installation is grounded in minimalism, feminism and process art. Drawing has always been an extension of her 3-D exploration; she approaches the surface not as … [Read more...] about CORNERED: OLIVIA BERNARD
WEEDING OUT THE OBVIOUS: WEN-HAO TIEN IN NEWTON
FEATURED ARTIST WEN-HAO TIEN: WEED OUT NEW ART CENTER IN NEWTON 61 WASHINGTON PARK, NEWTONVILLE, MA SEPTEMBER 22 THROUGH OCTOBER 19 by James Foritano Soon after Labor Day, common weeds will be carted to the New Art Center in Newton to be sculpted into an island in the center of its spacious Holzwasser Gallery. When the full spectrum lights are thrown on for the month-long exhibit’s September 22 opening — the brain-child of installation artist Wen-hao Tien — the culmination of the artist’s vision will shine in all its various weedy hues, forms and heights. And then begin to shift and shake — but more of that later. Right now, I want to question my use of the word “brainchild” — easy but not felicitous. Although Tien has led a decades-long career as an academic in Asian and international studies, first at Harvard University and recently at Boston University, her guts, … [Read more...] about WEEDING OUT THE OBVIOUS: WEN-HAO TIEN IN NEWTON