Welcome Brian Goslow Nearly 50 years ago, I attended my first art exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum. At the age of 12, I had already become quite fond of neon through its use in our many dining cars and a few captivating buildings that always called out in the night. That first show, “Light and Motion,” introduced me to a new way of seeing light – and art – that would grow over the years and lead me to where I am today. I was able to celebrate that anniversary just prior to us going to press by reviewing WAM’s latest exhibition, “Reusable Universes: Shih Chieh Huang,” which utilizes the recent rapid development of LED lighting in everyday living to present a sensory experience that I hope will resonate with museumgoers in a similar fashion. While I was visiting that show, longtime Artscope contributor James Foritano and his wife, Maddy, were exploring the newly … [Read more...] about Welcome
July/August 2017
FRESH EYES AT HELEN DAY: MFA STUDENTS SHINE
by Marta Pauer-Tursi The fourth biennial exhibition at Helen Day Art Center features the works of five MFA degree students from the Northeast. This year, more than 150 applicants’ works were considered for this juried exhibition. Four of the artists are women working in various mediums including painting, photography and sculpture. Two are from the Middle East, and the three Americans are from the West Coast, the South and New England. The majority of them are keenly aware of the political and social environment of their young adulthood, and their work reflects a unique perspective and statement on the implications of public policy and politics on the flow of human life. Arghavan Khosravi, a native of Tehran, Iran, explores aspects of identity and political experience in a series of works on paper. Among the works on exhibition are four meticulously adorned wooden boxes … [Read more...] about FRESH EYES AT HELEN DAY: MFA STUDENTS SHINE
A WONDER-FULL WORLD: PROP MASTER MICHAEL STASIUK
by Greg Morell The studio of Portsmouth artist Michael Stasiuk is a wonder world of creative imagination where obscure found objects are manipulated, jointed, glued and crafted into magical, animated, anthropomorphic spirits of fancy. Working with very simple tools — a drill, a small band saw, a series of hand tools — his wizardry of inventive fabrication conjures a panoply of whimsical characters and kooky creatures. His work is lighthearted, clever, amusing and a visual delight to both art aficionados and young children. Stasiuk’s veritable carnival of characters spring to life from rummaged objects that he discovers at flea markets, garage sales, antique shops and Colorado roadsides. Wooden children’s shoe shapers from the 1800s, bowling pins, croquet mallets, pick-up sticks, old brushes, broken chairs and toy blocks are the detritus transformed by this modern Geppetto … [Read more...] about A WONDER-FULL WORLD: PROP MASTER MICHAEL STASIUK
Text in Contemporary Art at Jamestown Arts Center
By Elizabeth Michelman The intersection of language and visual form provides both the tools and the subject of conceptual art. “WORD: Text in Contemporary Art” at the Jamestown Arts Center offers over 55 images, objects and installations contrasting canonical works with recent forays in the art-form. While concentrating on artists in southern New England, curator Karen Conway has also tapped collectors, galleries and artist studios in New York and the Midwest. Voyages at an end as well as explorations underway complement each other in the spacious former boat repair shop through early August. The works of the earlier conceptualists, like words in Scrabble, attract clusters of new invention. We see Lesley Dill and May Stevens appropriating texts of Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf to explore forms of verbal symbolizing. Glen Ligon uses stenciled black-and-white surfaces to … [Read more...] about Text in Contemporary Art at Jamestown Arts Center