Age, wisdom, the accumulation of experience and its imprint on the human body have attracted fiber artists Deidre Scherer and Jackie Abrams, both pioneers in their media for many years. Collaborating for an exhibition called “Connections,” at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont, on view from March 9 to June 16, 2019, they have created strongly textured vessels that beautifully and uniquely reflect the human image. The vessels on display, resulting from their collaboration, derive from reconfigured and printed images of Scherer’s original thread-on-fabric works which Abrams deconstructs and weaves into her vessel-shaped works. Scherer, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, is widely exhibited, awarded and commissioned internationally. She pioneered a unique figurative approach to the medium of thread on fabric in which she applies thread to layered fabrics … [Read more...] about MUTUAL RESPECT SOCIETY: SCHERER AND ABRAMS CREATE A NEW HUMAN TEXTURE
March/April 2019
SOFT UNCERTAIN SPACES: SCULLY GIVES ABSTRACTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE
Wadsworth Atheneum visitors are in for a treat: Sean Scully’s exquisite “Landline” series, just off a run at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., has arrived in Hartford. It’s here through May 19. Works from this master of post-minimalist conceptualism enraptured viewers in 2015 at the Venice Biennale. The show explores the title through a variety of media with works inspired by his years in Ireland. The series also marks a significant shift in Scully’s work from what had until recently become increasingly complex arrangements of stripes and colors. Landline marks a departure from his earlier hard-edged minimalism to his current expressive style. It has been Scully’s stated aim to give abstraction back to the people — and in recent years his paintings have been wildly popular, in some cases commanding $1 million apiece at auction. Scully, … [Read more...] about SOFT UNCERTAIN SPACES: SCULLY GIVES ABSTRACTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE
PROCESS PURISTS: TEMPERA’S SENSE OF SUSPENDED VISUAL MOMENT
“Tempera — Nature and Narrative,” at Attleboro Arts Museum from April 6 to May 4, focuses on paintings by eight artists working with classic egg tempera as a medium of today. We usually associate egg tempera with Italian Renaissance paintings. These masterworks produced a luminosity of color created by glazing techniques. The labor-intensive method can build freshness of color and clear resonance in dark areas as well as light areas as it achieves a harmony of color. The painters glazing techniques consisted of layering thin veils of color, one on top of the other. Many artists are known to meticulously refine the panels on which they paint and all of the contemporary artists in this show have created their own paints. Artist and curator Diane Savino mentioned Fra Angelico, de Filippi and Botticelli as masters of egg tempera from which she has drawn inspiration. Some will see … [Read more...] about PROCESS PURISTS: TEMPERA’S SENSE OF SUSPENDED VISUAL MOMENT
EMERGING THEMES: YEAR OF THE WOMAN CONTINUES IN CAA MEMBERS SHOW
Juror Lisa Crossman certainly had her work cut out for her. The Cambridge Art Association’s 2019 Members Prize show features paintings, photographs and sculpture by 60 regional artists. This year’s selection shows strength across many media, including oil, acrylic, fiber, ceramics and mixed media, with a particular excellence in photography. With so many strong submissions, Crossman — Ph.D., art historian and curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum — “sought to honor artists working in a range of styles, techniques and mediums” with her selection. “I was pleased to discover experimentation, skill, wit, whimsy, historical references, adept observation and beauty in this group of submissions,” Crossman said. Despite the diversity of media and subject matter, themes do emerge among the work. Noticeably, especially on the heels of what has been dubbed the second “Year of the Woman,” several … [Read more...] about EMERGING THEMES: YEAR OF THE WOMAN CONTINUES IN CAA MEMBERS SHOW
TURNING PLASTIC POLLUTION INTO ART: SMITH EXHIBITION ASKS ‘WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?’
Much of our planet is choking on plastic. Images of swaths of plastic debris crowding the oceans; birds starved with bellies full of bottle caps; massifs of discarded containers climbing to the sky — it is enough to make one recoil from the truth of the impact our so-called innovation has had on our fellow creatures, on beloved landscapes and on ourselves. Clearly, hiding will not reverse the course of our human folly. To change our ways while there is still time, we need to look squarely at the activities, appetites and lack of accountability which are leading us into an unsustainable future. But beyond our wish for a livable world, where is the incentive to address the question? How can the subject be broached in palatable ways? “Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials,” on view through late July at the Smith College Museum of Art, chronicles the interaction of … [Read more...] about TURNING PLASTIC POLLUTION INTO ART: SMITH EXHIBITION ASKS ‘WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?’
A CONVERSATION STARTER: THE DAVIS’ LATIN AMERICAN SURVEY SHOW SPARKLES
James Oles, professor of Latin American Art History at Wellesley and curator of Latin American Art at the Davis Museum, has for the past 20 years been building up a Latin American collection befitting an important regional museum. The three-dozen works in the collection in 1996 now exceed 500. A third of Oles’ new finds are showcased in “Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey” through June 9. One-third of the featured artists are women. The exhibition’s depth and value are confirmed in an impressive 260-page catalog containing commentaries from a wide field of experts on each work and artist. This show couldn’t be timelier. From a 21st-century standpoint, it prods us to ask: Who is doing the looking, then and now? What are we looking for? And what does our act of “looking” entail? Our exposure to and appreciation of these works serves a vital need to understand and respect our … [Read more...] about A CONVERSATION STARTER: THE DAVIS’ LATIN AMERICAN SURVEY SHOW SPARKLES