All That Glitters... by Elizabeth Michelman The shimmer of Michele Ratté’s gold-infused sculptures and prints is not just decorative veneer. Precious, permanent and pure, gold in her hands is not just a physical material, but a transcendent one. It is an ideal medium for cross-referencing the natural and archetypical cycles of birth, death and rebirth that frame our existence on this planet. At an early age, Ratté accompanied her father, a hydro-geologist, on treks into the Arizona deserts in search of signs of water. As he mapped, she picked up mica and fools-gold from the sands. Later he taught marine geology in the Virgin Islands, where she kept up with high school classes by correspondence and swam with schools of fish among the coral reefs. Ratté’s feeling for form is instinctive in her fingertips. Her mother sewed the children’s clothes by hand, and Ratté remembers … [Read more...] about Michele Ratté’s Circle of Life
Visual Arts
Grashow Makes the Cut
A Retrospective in Wood and Cardboard by Kristin Nord Both people who know and those who have not yet encountered artist James Grashow’s work are in for a treat this fall. The Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP) will be presenting a retrospective of Grashow’s woodcuts while underwriting the creation of one of his joyful cardboard fish menageries. Several hundred larger-than-life aquatic creatures will be assembled, decorated and mounted on sticks during a free workshop offered by CCP, The Stepping Stones Museum and The Maritime Museum as part of the Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play on September 17. A squadron of kids and their parents will then march with these creations in “The Fish Parade,” from Mathews Park to the Norwalk Marine Aquarium, in what promises to be an aquatic blessing of the fleet, reminiscent of a medieval street festival — “the more medieval the … [Read more...] about Grashow Makes the Cut
Brewster’s Quixotic Encounters
A Movement and a Region Evolve by J. Fatima Martins David Brewster exemplifies, in an extraordinary way, how American regionalism has evolved and continues to manifest into the contemporary realm. He is a master of formal and trained juxtapositions and dichotomies. In his paintings, Brewster combines the power of midcentury action and expressive mark-making — contemporary forms of plein air production — with the narrative intellectualism of scene painting, capturing and interpreting, from a personal perspective, the nuances of a specific time and place. He is a thoroughly American artist, and as expected for a doyen talent, his work is steeped in and bridges the fullness of art history. What makes him an example and expansion of the regionalist mode is the manner in which he reveals, creates and projects a story. Like the regionalists of the past, his style appeals to a … [Read more...] about Brewster’s Quixotic Encounters
Tayo Heuser’s Spiritual Force
Looking In: Looking Out in Jamestown by Suzanne Volmer In conversation at her Pawtucket studio, Tayo Heuser described herself as shy; to discuss her as a person with a countenance of introspection seems more accurate. The assessment of herself was enigmatic and thoughtprovoking, juxtaposed against the array of emotive abstractions which blanketed nearly all of the walls and available table surfaces around her that day, as she prepared for “Looking In: Looking Out,” her solo exhibition that opened September 1 at the Jamestown Arts Center. Her reductive sensibility engages the idea of spirituality in art. Heuser’s work transcends the feeling of being in the “now,” directing attention toward the ineffable beyond. While putting last details on pieces to be included in the show, she discussed Jamestown’s exhibit space. She spoke about the set-up she envisioned to engage the … [Read more...] about Tayo Heuser’s Spiritual Force
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty
Ode to a Modern Master's Legacy by Franklin W. Liu It’s been said that photography walks alone. As a 20th Century fine art medium, it opens our eyes to the world around us, near and far, challenging us to think and inducing us to feel what is conveyed through a singular, compelling moment captured through a discerning eye with the click of a shutter. “Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty” is a major retrospective exhibition presenting 146 striking, stark photographic images made with passion by photographer-artist extraordinaire, Irving Penn (1917-2009). This nationwide traveling tribute was assiduously culled from the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent collection by distinguished guest-curator Merry A. Foresta, who served as the Smithsonian’s curator of photography from 1982 through 2000, when she became the director of the Smithsonian’s Photography … [Read more...] about Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty
Feminine Influence
NAWA at Endicott by J. Fatima Martins “Breaking Ground,” a presentation of 55 conceptually and materially diverse works of art — painting, photography, ceramics, fiber, printmaking, mixed-media, sculpture and bronze — by 46 contemporary women artists of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) asks: “Does being a woman artist influence your style, subject and or medium?” NAWA, the oldest professional women’s fine arts organization in the United States, was founded as the Women’s Art Club of New York in 1889. Its membership has included some of the most prominent, influential and world-renowned female artists, such as Louise Nevelson, Suzanne Valadon, Mary Cassatt and Rosa Bonheur, to name only a few. The exhibition features a sampling of almost everything (except video arts), with styles and modes ranging from traditional, … [Read more...] about Feminine Influence