The last time I saw Anton “Napi” Van Dereck, a passionate collector of paintings and white line woodblock prints from the arts colony of Provincetown, we were debating the validity of abstract art. He said, “I understand it, of course, but I don’t like it. I like art that tells a story.” Napi’s death this past year on Christmas Day, at 89 years of age, marks the end of an era and is sad. It is poignant and fitting that CEO and Curator of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum’s Chris McCarthy created the exhibit “Directors’ Choice: In Memoriam: Napi Van Dereck” to mark his passing. … [Read more...] about A Deep Passion: Remembering Napi’s Provincetown

“Nothing that you plan is going to work out. Everything is going to be totally different than the way you expected. And things will constantly challenge you. Wherever you look the world is not as solid it seems to be.” — Spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle. For 16 years, art lovers and the culturally curious of the South Coast towns of Westport and Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Tiverton and LittleCompton, Rhode Island, have made their annual pilgrimage visit to the studios of some of the best artists, who live, work and actively exhibit in these four beautiful New England bordering coastal towns. Many of these trekkers return year after year to the annual Open Studio Tour sponsored by the South Coast Artists (SCA), a non-profit arts organization founded in 2008. South Coast Artists was founded by artists for artists, to encourage and foster artistic growth and recognition … [Read more...] about Riding the Current: Determined South Coast Artists Tour Is On

Words and visual imagery are deeply entwined in Claudia Ruiz Gustafson’s solo exhibition, “Historias de Tierra y Mar: Stories of Land and Sea,” at the Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge. Words and photos are dependent on each other and the mix reveals a great deal about Ruiz Gustafson’s life. Born in Peru, she moved to the United States in her 20s, the only member of her family to do so. The exhibit is an intimate look at the life and people she left behind, the sense of loss it created in her, and an appreciative look at the culture and locale where her parents live. In January, she was fortunate to be able to do a photographic exploration of their city, Lima, Peru, and return to the U.S. before the pandemic gripped us. … [Read more...] about A Visual Memoir: Ruiz Gustafson’s Peruvian Love Letter

Never has protest been more relevant than today. Whether protesting for human rights, the protection of our planetary home, equal justice for all, or to better the lives of children, we are witnessing a social movement in our country and abroad which gains momentum daily. In his newly-released book, “Our Voices, Our Streets: American Protests 2001-2011,” photographer Kevin Bubriski has created a collection of images spanning adecade of American life, beginning with the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, and culminating with the Occupy Wall Street protests in the fall of 2011. Shot with a Hasselblad camera, Bubriski’s objective eye and poignant sensibility reveal pivotal, defining moments of our pre-COVID-19 times through portraits which are at once robust and delicate. Bennington Museum, not far from where Bubriski makes his home, has chosen from among these images to mount an … [Read more...] about The Long-term Story: Bubriski Documents Vermont’s Dissent

Caroline Rufo’s installation, “Intervisible,” a critique of historical redlining practices targeting Black homeowners around Boston, opened in SOWA in early March. Days later, the pandemic shuttered the Bromfield Gallery. Since its reopening in mid-June to an America convulsed by protests over George Floyd’s killing, Rufo’s interrogation of white complacency and governmental complicity in systemic racism could not be more timely. “Intervisible”is a work of acknowledgment and atonement. Visitors enter a fluttering, papery maze of lacy floor-to- ceiling curtains bounded by quilted, hand-dyed cotton batting stitched together and pinned to the walls. The flat shapes of blue, green, yellow, white and red correspond to a 1937 Residential Security map of Boston’s neighborhoods issued by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, a federal agency created during the New Deal. The HOLC gathered … [Read more...] about Intervisible at Bromfield

Following the unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain and countless other Black and Brown bodies due to police violence and brutality, national outrage has sparked uprisings in cities across the country. People from all walks of life have poured out of their homes in leadership and in allyship — during a global pandemic — to join liberation movements for Black lives. Correspondingly, street artists have taken to boarded-up panels and empty storefronts to do what they do best — make art. In many of these cities, public art can be seen as an inspiring backdrop, or in some cases, the centerpiece for peoples’ rage. While Confederate statues are being torn down, righteous murals are being painted upon building facades and across several blocks of municipal streets declaring that Black Lives Matter, as seen in Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, Seattle, … [Read more...] about Murals for the Movement: Street Theory’s Socially Engaged Art