The ancient Greeks spoke of eight kinds of love: Eros (sexual love), Philia (friendship), Storge (love of kin and children), Ludus (playful love or flirtation), Mania (obsessiveness), Pragma (mature love), Philautia (love of self) and Agape (unconditional or spiritual love). But there are many kinds of love, some seemingly noble: empathy, generosity, love of country, love of the home, and of nature and culture. And there are forms of love that dip into the traditionally sinful: for example, the desire for the attributes or possessions of others, or envy. Five of the other seven deadly sins — greed, pride, gluttony, sloth and lust are just forms of love taken too far and turned ugly. Love is more than chocolate-filled cardboard hearts or stomach butterflies or sappy romantic comedies or misremembered Shakespearean sonnets or late night drunken confessions. It is ephemeral yet … [Read more...] about VISUAL PASSION: ART/WORD TACKLES VISIONS OF LOVE AT LASELL
March/April 2020
SCULPTORS AS ACTIVISTS: TAKING A STAND AT ATTLEBORO ARTS MUSEUM
Primaries for the national election punctuate politics in the United States with rhetoric ranging from how to reach for the brass ring of prosperity to stumping on national and global policy issues. In this climate, Attleboro Arts Museum director Mim Fawcett said that 75 percent of artwork that she is seeing from artists involves social commentary. That commentary has prompted “Take a Stand: Voices of the New England Sculptors Association.” From April 9 through May 8, the show will weigh in on Zeitgeist with sculptures plumbing topics such as environment, civil rights, racism, Roe vs. Wade, gender equality, gun violence and immigration. Sculptor Ruth Rosner has two artworks in the show from her “Refugee Women” series, which comment on U.S. border enforcement. Disturbing to her are the ongoing herding practices reminiscent of the Holocaust. By phone, Rosner described her practice of … [Read more...] about SCULPTORS AS ACTIVISTS: TAKING A STAND AT ATTLEBORO ARTS MUSEUM
CORNERED: HORACE D. BALLARD – 120 YEARS OF LANDMARK IMAGERY AT WILLIAMS
In the first survey of its vast photographic collection that covers roughly a quarter of its collection and spans close to 120 years, the Williams College Museum of Art’s current “Landmarks” exhibition is a powerful showcase of images that follow four themes: “landmark events, buildings as landmarks, landmark features of specific environments and landmark impressions” that celebrate some of the world’s biggest achievements during that time period along with bringing some of its grandest challenges and catastrophes to the forefront of our attention. While it provides the opportunity to see some of the most famous images in history in person — Alfred Stieglitz’s “The Steerage” and Edward Steichen’s “The Flatiron,” Berenice Abbott’s “Nightview, New York,” William Anders’ 1968 “Earthrise” and Dorothea Lange’s “Potato Truck with Farmers, California,” amongst them — it also allows viewers … [Read more...] about CORNERED: HORACE D. BALLARD – 120 YEARS OF LANDMARK IMAGERY AT WILLIAMS
OUR EVER-CHANGING MOODS: SPRING’S TIMELY ARRIVAL AT COPLEY SOCIETY
As its artist prospectus had called for artwork to “celebrate the unexpected beauty of winter and the promise of spring,” taking a train trip whose tracks traveled alongside woods, streams and hills was the perfect preparation to review the Copley Society of Art’s 2020 winter members’ show, “Full Spectrum.” One of the first works I was pulled towards was “Waiting for Spring,” a sharp watercolor painting by Kara Bigda. I had to move right up to it to confirm it wasn’t a photograph due to its finelydetailed, well-weathered boards of the barn portrayed in it. The same attention was given to its leafless branches. Right above it, Wray Clifford’s “First Signs” oil painting of an apple tree’s first buds of the year on a snow-covered hillside benefited from a fine mastery of the artist tools used to make it. It was painted from images Clifford took while visiting friends in Sunday River, … [Read more...] about OUR EVER-CHANGING MOODS: SPRING’S TIMELY ARRIVAL AT COPLEY SOCIETY
THE SOUND OF ART: SPRUCE PEAK OPENS VERMONT’S 2020 VISION SERIES
Birds chirp, piano strings make new sounds, a human voice honors nature, drawers reveal surprises. Experienced together in a small, innovative exhibition called “Art of Sound” at the Spruce Peak Arts Gallery in Stowe, Vermont, four artists share their dedication to sound as an art form. Gallery curator Kelly Holt, an artist herself, explained what drew her to mount the unusual exhibition. “The richness of sound is often hard to perceive. And yet there is beauty in creative ways of sharing sound. It just takes a minute to slow down, take the time to listen and interact. Artmaking with sound often forms a unique dance of call and response.” As Holt pointed out, the exhibition invites viewers to experience sound in both grand and intimate settings. Susan Calza’s “Our Hour,” for example, which includes video and voice, is projected in the gallery’s vaulted ceiling with ambient sound, … [Read more...] about THE SOUND OF ART: SPRUCE PEAK OPENS VERMONT’S 2020 VISION SERIES
LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION.: HARBOR GALLERY PERFECT FOR CLIPART WATER THEME
In East Boston, we cannot escape our connection to the water. Even surrounded by buildings, a glance in one direction or another leads you directly to the harbor. Entering the ClipArt Gallery at the newly developed Clippership Wharf, the smell of the ocean on the wind joins you, and panoramic windows offer glimpses of the harbor. Through “Water: Medium & Mirror,” an eclectic and fascinating collection of works by New England artists, curator Stephanie Arnett of the Atlantic Works Gallery shows that “Water is essential to all known life.” A stark grouping of three cyanotype works by Connie Lowell has you striding across the gallery to take a closer look. Lowell is fascinated by cyanobacteria, the 3.5-billion-year-old “architects” of stromatolites, mounds and columns formed by the bacteria’s natural pursuance of light. In her pieces “4 Billion B.C.E.,” “1 Billion B .C.C.” and “2.5 … [Read more...] about LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION.: HARBOR GALLERY PERFECT FOR CLIPART WATER THEME