It’s been an interesting couple of months in the New York art world, as the Armory Show moves to Pier 90 and 94, cancelling emerging artist show Volta. Due to the unsound structure of Pier 92 on New York’s Hudson River, part of the Armory Show previously to be located on Pier 92, will move to nearby Pier 90, the home of the Volta Art Show. The other half will stay in its original location, Pier 94, which is holding up. It seems the big boys have won the space race as emerging artist fair, Volta, originally located on Pier 90, has been displaced and subsequently announced the postponement of its 2019 New York fair until 2020. In an unusual act of charity, or justice, all exhibitors signed up with Volta were notified that they will be reimbursed for expenses, but less than two weeks before the March 6 VIP and press opening of the fair, costs have been incurred for shipping, framing, … [Read more...] about THE BUSINESS OF ART: ARMORY AND VOLTA SHOW NEWS
Exhibits
REVIEW OF ‘ANSEL ADAMS: IN OUR TIME’ AT MFA BOSTON
Ansel Adams’s Manzanar photos “burn one’s eyes.” Twice in 1943, Ansel Adams ventured to the desert of east central California, to focus his lens, not on some magnificent landscape, but on the desolate Manzanar War Relocation Center to document the life of the Japanese interred there. The result was the 1944 publication of Born Free and Equal, a 112-book that presented a selection of his Manzanar photos with text by Adams. The MFA exhibition “Ansel Adams: In Our Time” thoughtfully and beautifully demonstrates Adams’ influence on the work of several 21st-century photographers. But the exhibition (which ended February 24) offers up only four small photos and a brief explanation about this little-known chapter in his life’s work. Adams’s Manzanar photos, which warrant further exploration, are strongly “of our time,” a time when once again “the other” is being demonized. On February … [Read more...] about REVIEW OF ‘ANSEL ADAMS: IN OUR TIME’ AT MFA BOSTON
Red 2018 at Cambridge Art Association
The Cambridge Art Association has had a tradition for a number of years of inviting artists to submit works along the theme of two colors: red and blue. This year it was red and for whatever reasons that color, in this writer’s opinion, struck such a resonant chord from the palette of so many excellent artists that I would have broken tradition to title it “Big Red.” Juried by Dan Byers, the director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University, this year’s harvest is such a feast that one is well advised to nibble and digest rather than run wild and miss almost everything. Even at the smaller of the two venues for “Red,” the Kathryn Schultz Gallery, located up Mt. Auburn Street from Harvard Square just opposite the bus stop for Mt. Auburn Hospital, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand in front of every work long enough to do its artistry even small justice. So, … [Read more...] about Red 2018 at Cambridge Art Association
Works on Paper at the South Shore Art Center
The Bancroft Gallery at South Shore Art Center’s current show is “Works on Paper,” juried by Andrew Witkin of Krakow Witkin Gallery. “Works on Paper” has a diverse set of pieces, the only common denominator of them being that they are paper. From hyper realistic watercolor to abstract cut-paper works, the show was dominated by a mix of media. Out of hundreds of artists’ submissions, only 50 works were picked by Witkin for the show, and seven of them given awards. “I was amazed at the breadth of exploration and the depth of involvement,” Witkin’s juror statement expressed. “My decisions are balanced between personal preferences and respect for the specifics of the wonderful diversity of art presented. The works show incredible creativity, dedication and skill.” Witkin asked that the award winners be honored equally; “In this era of intense judgement and separation, I hope this group … [Read more...] about Works on Paper at the South Shore Art Center
Farsad Labbauf: From My East to Your West
In a layering of styles and content, east and west, Iran and America, past and present, Farsad Labbauf has used imagery from his youth in Iran combined with iconic imagery from mass media and commercialism in America to comment on global economics and society. Speaking about his paintings at Blank Space Gallery, in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, in his solo show, “From My East to Your West,” he emphasized the constant bombardment of images from western entertainment media: television, comic books and toys while being exposed to Persian arts including calligraphy, Persian miniature painting, tile works and poetry. Resultantly, he has merged these images in his paintings. He comes from a background of sewing, so that stitchery is translated in his work to a series of lines ranging from the thinness of threads to thicker lines on the canvas, comprising faces, figures, backgrounds, … [Read more...] about Farsad Labbauf: From My East to Your West
From Two, One.
Seeming to reference Edward Hopper’s interiors and Gerhard Richter’s “Woman Descending the Staircase” (1965, after Duchamp), with a bit of Vermeer’s Dutch Master technique and figurative expertise thrown in, the Safarani sisters’ video paintings, in their solo show “Reincarnation,” surpass and contemporize these past masterworks. Presented by Roya Khadjavi Projects, Iranian twin sisters, Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani, master of fine arts graduates from Northeastern University with bachelor of art degrees from Tehran University in painting, literally set the stage for the slow contemplation of domestic scenes featuring themselves. The video projection of wavering sheer curtains onto the oil paintings doubles the doppelgänger effect of two sisters appearing in and simultaneously painting the canvas. From the earliest paintings shown, layers of curtain increasingly part and cover to … [Read more...] about From Two, One.