Nestled on the south coast of Massachusetts is New Bedford, named one of the most creative cities in not just one, but in several surveys and publications starting in 2011, when, Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” ranked the city as the “seventh most artistic city in America in proportion to its population, alongside the likes of San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.” Since then, it was also ranked ninth on Matador Network’s list of Most Creative and sixth on Bustle’s Best Cities for Young Artists. The Massachusetts Cultural Council named New Bedford the most creative community in the State in 2017. Yet, when Luis Villanueva’s Colo Colo Gallery closed a year ago or so, the lauded creative community lost one of its last traditional galleries. The Colo Colo had survived for nearly 10 years with an impressive agenda of local, national and international … [Read more...] about A TASTE OF NEW BEDFORD: ALTERNATE SPACES AND A LIVELY ARTS SCENE
Current Issue
MAKING CONNECTIONS: WITH JULIE MEHRETU
It is inspiring when our world-class universities invite artists to have a seat at the table. On Monday, April 8, 2019, MIT organized a panel discussion centering on the artist Julie Mehretu and her work as part of its ongoing lecture series at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. Nasser Rabbat, a renowned architectural historian and director of the AKPIA, welcomed the audience. The series focuses on art and the artist’s ability to respond to the violent conflicts that have engulfed the Middle East, particularly since the Arab uprisings that began at the end of 2010. This year’s guest was Mehretu, who cites Rabbat’s 2011 article in Artforum, titled, “Circling the Square” as a major inspiration for her work “Mogamma (a painting in four parts).” Mehretu, a New York-based artist, with miriam cooke, professor emerita at Duke University and author of “Dancing in Damascus: … [Read more...] about MAKING CONNECTIONS: WITH JULIE MEHRETU
CORNERED: NAYDA AURORA CUEVAS
Born in Puerto Rico, Nayda Aurora Cuevas moved to the United States with her family at the age of 10, a point in her life, she writes on her website, that “evoked a new sense of self-exploration and need to establish connections with people.” Her figurative paintings — “a visual language to better articulate my observations and interpretations of my Latin@ American Experience” — invite viewers to do the same. Cuevas’ work has been shown throughout the East Coast; last fall, her #FluidIdentity exhibition at the Nobles & Greenough School drew attention when two of its paintings were removed by a school official. In this “Cornered” interview, Artscope managing editor Brian Goslow talked with Cuevas about the ways she approaches her artmaking and teaching from the viewpoint of “Puerto Rican,” “Latina,” “Mother” or “Immigrant,” her recent self-published book, returning to post-Hurricane … [Read more...] about CORNERED: NAYDA AURORA CUEVAS
MAKING CONNECTIONS WHILE ON AN ART-THEMED VACATION
VACATION TRAVEL FOR ARTISTS: WORK OR PLEASURE? Every vacation I take with my wife (and fellow Myth Maker), Donna Dodson, begins with goals: take a break together, hike landscapes, experience climates unfamiliar and see art that inspires. We prioritize exercise, abhor crowds and limit driving to four hours a day. After a year of working in our studios preparing solo shows and completing four monumental public art projects, the idea of unfamiliar art museums and walking blocks of art galleries together seemed a delightful rest. Donna had Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Queen Califia’s Magical Circle” in Escondido, California in mind. My ambition was an off-season hike into the Grand Canyon. Phoenix proved a great arts-destination airport for our adventures. We experienced a fortuitous beginning — public art greeted us at the car-rental building: Ten of Jun Kaneko’s life-size, ceramic … [Read more...] about MAKING CONNECTIONS WHILE ON AN ART-THEMED VACATION
CAPSULE PREVIEWS
“Renewal” is the theme of this year’s “Annual Juried Members Show” that opened on February 28 at the Copley Society of Art, 158 Newbury St., Boston. The exhibition, which continues the gallery’s tradition of covering a wide variety of mediums, including painting, photography, graphite and pastel, was curated by Meg White, director of Gallery NAGA. First prize was awarded to Acadia Mezzofanti’s illusionistic photograph, “Self-Portrait: Untamed;” Carolyn Latanision’s watercolor painting of a rusted steel engine, “Powered Down, Bethlehem Steel,” took second prize while Mary Hughes earned third p rize for her abstract painting, “Ice Flow I,” which evokes winter-ice surfaces. The show runs through March 28. Art League Rhode Island is presenting “Twisting Fibers — An Art for All Reasons,” an open juried national exhibition that opens on March 8 and continues through May 8 at the Blackstone … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS
SAMURAI WHITE: HEAVY METAL AND MUERTOS NUTCRACKERS FIND LOVE
“It’s basically my brain throwing up — because I have to get it out — I do the ‘thing’ and I feel a lot better afterwards. It’s like I have a record of it. This is what happened, and there’s the proof. It’s out of me and it’s in its container.” Samurai White has found a way to deal with the darkness. During her time at Rhode Island School of Design in the early 2000s, White studied graphic design and mix media arts, but years later, took a deep dive into her art as a coping mechanism while caring for her father as he was dying of lymphoma. Having left her own life up North to be with him in Atlanta, his fate looking evermore grim, White began building these funny little men, her “Heavy Metal Nutcrackers:” Slash, David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, just to name a few. Wooden nutcrackers sculpted, painted and adorned to the likeness of music’s most notorious heavy-metal men. “I did it as a … [Read more...] about SAMURAI WHITE: HEAVY METAL AND MUERTOS NUTCRACKERS FIND LOVE