“Context: Language, Media and Meaning,” a juried exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum, showcases 30 works predominantly of fiber, handmade paper and textile from members of the Surface Design Association’s southern New England chapters. Each material work incorporates or refers to language. The phrase “Surface Design” refers to a self-selected group of artists sharing certain materials and practices, who borrow and challenge craft traditions while transcending disciplinary boundaries. Their engagement with language reflects curiosity and willingness to critique signifying structures, concern for contemporary politics and consciousness of feminist issues in changing times, often all in a single piece. The works are multivalent: their words alone don’t impart the full blast but add urgency, agency and irony to contemporary iterations of traditional forms and methods. We hear words … [Read more...] about SURFACE DESIGN: LANGUAGE AS A MEDIUM AT FULLER CRAFT
Current Issue
SHINING IN THE SEAPORT: WEARABLE ART AT THE SOCIETY OF ARTS + CRAFTS
Currently on view in Boston’s Seaport District on the second floor of one of that neighborhood’s sheathed-in-glass high-rise buildings is: “Adorning Boston and Beyond: Contemporary Studio Jewelry Then + Now.” Guest curated by MassArt Jewelry Professor, Heather White, for The Society of Arts + Crafts, the show is contoured to contextualize today’s jewelry trends using images and writings focused on the studio jewelry work of American post-war artists and designers. Such work blazed a conceptual imprint of enduring significance. White begins this show with documentation in photo and text to suggest the experimentation of the post-war era continues to inform the strongest studio jewelry trends of today. Particularly the show explores the role adornment plays, describing and declaring personal identity and engaging the public and the wearer. Stepping forward from the elevator into the … [Read more...] about SHINING IN THE SEAPORT: WEARABLE ART AT THE SOCIETY OF ARTS + CRAFTS
BEHIND EVERY GREAT ARTIST: ARTISTS AND THEIR PARTNERS
I came up with this story concept during a gathering of friends, classmates and fellow artists. We’ve been getting together as often as possible after a hiatus of about 40 years for several reasons. At the core of this group are the former students of Ed Togneri, Bill (Willoughby) Elliott, Herb Cummings or Frank McCoy at Southeastern Massachusetts University (which became the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 1991). Many of us are from the Bachelor of Fine Arts Class of 1975 and were painting majors. It’s very interesting how, as we aged, we began to reach out to each other on Facebook. As we reconnected, we learned that some of us were fortunate enough to secure full-time faculty positions while others went into alternative fields such as marketing and advertising. When we had our first reunion a couple of summers ago, it was amazing to hear, not only how similar our life and … [Read more...] about BEHIND EVERY GREAT ARTIST: ARTISTS AND THEIR PARTNERS
Welcome from Brian Goslow
The early months of the year are unpredictable, with the usual cold temperatures and nasty weather typically making it tougher to travel from place to place. On the other hand, it encourages picking a single place or district to settle into for the day and playing closer attention to the exhibitions they visit. It’s also a good time for artists and artisans to settle in to address those projects they’ve put up during the warm weather season. Over the past few months, during the holiday fair season, I’ve contemplated the lasting value of a work created by furniture and jewelry makers, potters, sculptors and fiber artists, especially at a time where communities herald their roles in the maker culture. How does one truly judge which work being created today will find itself part of a museum display centuries from now? Or will that be up to the curators of 2219 to decide? With these … [Read more...] about Welcome from Brian Goslow
MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH DONNA DODSON
by Donna Dodson Not everyone can make their dreams come true. It takes hard work, careful planning and perseverance. Rose Bryant not only has what it takes — she has infected others with her vision for a vibrant art community in Exeter, New Hampshire. Bryant taught private art classes in her home studio in Exeter for 10 years. She created a community of artists by hosting outdoor shows, pop-up art exhibits and open houses. Wanting to find a permanent home for her transient community of artists, she began to look for a building in town. When the former teen center became vacant, she and her husband purchased the building at 120 Front Street in Exeter in September 2016. Art Up Front Street opened as a for-profit venture in December 2016. Here are some of the people that make up the Art Up Front Street community: ROSE BRYANT is a painter and founder of Art Up Front Street. … [Read more...] about MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH DONNA DODSON
SAMUEL LEVI JONES: ENCOURAGING INCLUSION THROUGH ART
NATIONAL ARTIST SPOTLIGHT SAMUEL LEVI JONES by Nancy Nesvet In today’s world, the art of the cover-up is being torn apart and exposed. An artist with strong New England ties, Samuel Levi Jones — with his upcoming early-2019 show at Northeastern University, part of “Personal to Political” — is causing waves in the art world as he reveals, tears up, paints over and deconstructs history. In February 2017, Jones told me his work addresses “Systems of power and how we navigate the structure of those controlling. Who can and cannot participate, the way we think about history: who writes it and controls that information, the way we deal with history or not deal with it, processing it and thinking about where we are going.” His artistic practice began when Jones, working at a recycling plant, wanted to find a way to recycle books. “I didn’t limit my process to being in the … [Read more...] about SAMUEL LEVI JONES: ENCOURAGING INCLUSION THROUGH ART