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Artscope Magazine | May/June 2025

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Visual Arts

Installation artist Sarah Bierman at Brandeis University

// Visual Arts

By Shani Abramowitz WALTHAM, MA -- The first of a two-part installation and a component of her senior honors thesis in Studio Art, Sarah Bierman is making sure we can all take a seat. Thanks to Bierman, the Brandeis University campus is now peppered with couches and chairs that seem to be growing out of the trees. Searching for a natural and effortless look, Bierman reconstructed the found objects in ways that complemented their environment, “I wanted to place a couch that looked like it had been growing between two tress,” Bierman said, “[like] you had planted the couch and it kind of grew around the them.” A site-specific project, Bierman’s installation demonstrates how seamlessly found objects can be integrated in the natural environment. So far, Bierman has installed two couches and two chairs around the Brandeis campus, but says that we can expect at least two more in the … [Read more...] about Installation artist Sarah Bierman at Brandeis University

Art by Hygienic Gallery

New London Calling

// Uncategorized, Visual Arts

By Cole Tracy New London, CT - New London is a small town where everyone knows each other. It was surprising, then, to see such a place so open and friendly to new ideas and the arts. It may be small, but in my short visit, I met many characters that helped to ensure that the inhabitants would have something to do, whether it be musical or artistic. Margaret Bodell, project manager for the State of Connecticut’s Office of the Arts’ Create Here Now project, brought me around to show me what the town had to offer. Previously, she has done storefront activities in other cities and towns in the state, including Norwalk and Bridgeport. She finds unused spaces in cities and repurposes them as community spaces for creative purposes. Whether she's turning a storefront into a place for communal music or a gallery, or finding artists cheap or free living spaces, Bodell is always working … [Read more...] about New London Calling

Chanel Brings the Sparkle Back to Newbury Street

// Exhibit Openings, Exhibits, News, Visual Arts

By Ari Garber Boston, MA- The walls of the new Chanel Boutique at 6 Newbury Street in Boston were dressed even more finely than the guests at its December 6 opening celebration. New York architect Peter Marino, who designed the store’s mirror clad walls, attended the party, as did French artists Johan Creten and Jean-Michel Othoniel, who created the rich and evocative sculpture installations that adorn the boutique. A cascade of glass baubles hang in front of a shining black stone wall on the first floor. This piece by Othoniel obviously refers to Coco Chanel's trademark pearl necklaces, but like the music playing alongside the clatter of high heels on the tile floor and the champagne bottles popping in the kitchen behind the scenes, they pack a modern energy that transports classic elegance into a new age. Nearby, Creten's golden sculptures look like molten lava, fueling the fire of … [Read more...] about Chanel Brings the Sparkle Back to Newbury Street

Thomas Demand: Dailies at Matthew Mark Gallery

// Exhibits, News, Visual Arts

By Cole Tracy New York, NY- As opposed to his normal practice of working from news images, Thomas Demand turns his focus onto the everyday shots from his cellphone in “Dailies,” an exhibition on view through December 21 at the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York City. The strange paradigm of looking at these ordinary moments, sculpturally recreated by Demand and then photographed, is serendipitous yet simultaneously meticulous. Each photograph shows a moment of solitude within an urban setting, with the end result looking like a visual diary. But each image was produced over several months, during which time Demand perfects these quiet moments into a miniature reality. The dye transfer prints look almost surreal; the information attained and the beautifully accurate color saturation give the images an even stronger life-like feel. This show addresses the everyday, and lonesomeness … [Read more...] about Thomas Demand: Dailies at Matthew Mark Gallery

George Nick: A Lifetime of Self-Portraits at Nesto Gallery

// Exhibit Openings, Exhibits, Visual Arts

By Cole Tracy Milton, MA- George Nick, one of the pre-eminent American realist painters, has been doing the same work, painstakingly, since the abstract-expressionists were reigning in the 1960s; a collection of his self-portraits is on view at the Nesto Gallery at Milton Academy through December 13. Behind the work, there is an intense ideology of painting from reality. His images are definitive of this: the brushstrokes are swift and visible in most of the paintings; his name and date are etched into a corner of the image, added while the paint was still wet. It is clear each of the paintings was made in one sitting. Nick’s face changes little but the light quality as well as his perception led him to create many varying images of his own face. By painting from reality, he forces himself to focus on his perceived reality with intensive ardor. There are several excerpts of … [Read more...] about George Nick: A Lifetime of Self-Portraits at Nesto Gallery

Poised, 25 ft tall, saplings, wire ties, 2013

Artscoped!: Revisiting Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein

// Exhibit Openings, Exhibits, News, Visual Arts

By Cole Tracy The Myth Makers, a two-person artistic collaboration between Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein produce sculptures based around the ‘mystical relationship between human beings and the animal kingdom’. These sculptors were first covered in the Andy Moerlein and Donna Dodson: In a Collaborative Spirit headlined article by Elizabeth Michelman in the September/October 2011 issue. Following this inaugural coverage, they were reviewed for being part of Convergence: The Boston Sculptors Gallery 20th Anniversary Exhibition in the January/February 2013 issue. A large (twenty-five feet) seated bird made of sticks titled ‘Poised’ was shown as well as Dodson’s personal creation: ‘The Tiger Mothers’. These human-esque feminine animals are symbolic for the tribe of motherhood. The Tiger Mothers has recently been loaned to the Sothern New Hampshire University, where they stand proudly … [Read more...] about Artscoped!: Revisiting Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein