The pandemic dealt crushing blows to artists and arts instructions alike over the past year, with long-anticipated and installed solo exhibitions put on hold, and temporary building closures. But despite cancellations and staff furloughs, many museums in Connecticut have used this somnolent time well, continuing to plan for exhibitions that will better reflect Connecticut’s historic and ethnic populations, and keeping arts lovers engaged and wanting more with marvelous virtual programming. As many moved to soft openings, and mass vaccinations are underway, exciting exhibitions are planned this spring and fall. Here are just a few of them. (To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.) … [Read more...] about FULL-THROTTLE CREATIVITY: CONNECTICUT VENUES KEEPING ART LOVERS ENGAGED

Suzanne Volmer joined the Artscope staff in spring 2012; what follows are portions of recent discussions she’s had with New England artists she’s covered during her nine years with the magazine. A sculptor, painter and installation artist in her own right, her art will be on view from March 24 through April 25 at the LaunchPad Gallery at Boston Sculptors Gallery. WITH KENNY COLE (MONROE, MAINE) YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MONUMENTAL GOUACHE DRAWINGS, HAVE COMPLETED A BOOKLET ILLUSTRATING TRUMP’S HISTORY OF TWEETS, AND HAVE BEEN SELLING ARTWORK THROUGH INSTAGRAM STEADILY IN 2020/21. YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE ALIVE SO ODDLY, HAS THIS BEEN A GOOD YEAR FOR YOU? No, it has not been a good year! Increased online sales are a great show of support for my work, but not significant in terms of a measurable income. These sales are indicator[s] of people spending time online. My work is being seen … [Read more...] about INTENSIFIED SOUL SEARCHING: PHYSICAL FEEDBACK OF GALLERIES GREATLY MISSED

In this year of existential stress, Antoinette Winters, Laura Evans and Roya Amigh, all Boston artists, can teach us ways to endure the pervasive disturbances that threaten our personal psychic well-being as well as that of the culture. They bring to bear a quality of listening and clarity of response — above all, a spaciousness — that can support us in the face of outer burdens and inner needs unmet. Each artist’s minimalist sensibility — in installations, drawing and sculpture — focuses awareness to a higher pitch and hones a delicate balance between means and message. Through their eyes and ears we become attentive to words and wordlessness; to voices that testify, hold back, or are silenced. Their measured forms hold, tolerate and transform the toxins of our times. (To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.) … [Read more...] about A QUALITY OF SPACIOUSNESS: TRANSFORMING THE TOXINS OF OUR TIMES

Callthemrenegades.Mavericks.Rebels. Coming from a literary perspective, perhaps I’d call them artists who chose the road less traveled... For our 15th anniversary issue, six long-term writers for Artscope Magazine were chosen to profile favorite artists we’ve written about previously. A veteran writer of 14 years for the magazine, I was honored, and yet overwhelmed. Because— how do you narrow it down to three from the multitude of talented artists? But I’ve selected the three below. After deciding, I asked myself what — beyond the obvious common denominator as artist — do they have in common. After some contemplation, it came to me: They are renegades. They color outside the lines. They march to the beat of a different drummer. They choose the road less traveled. One refused to be confined to the standard “full-sheet watercolor” restriction. Another rebuffed her instructor … [Read more...] about THREE REMARKABLE RENEGADES: COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

When times are uncertain, it is easy to fall into reminiscence of rosier days gone by. Revisiting the work, and lives, of three artists previously featured by Artscope could have led to a nostalgic look-back. Instead, what I found among the artists featured here were a keen optimism and drive to create, in the face of all obstacles, heartbreaks and physical limitations currently shared by so many of our fellow humans. Patricia Johanson, whose work I featured here in Artscope in 2019 covering Bennington Museum’s “Color Fields: 1960s Bennington Modernism” exhibition, has followed a singular path from her early days at Bennington College, where Johanson experimented in the company of Paul Feeley and other progressive artists of the time. Johanson has spent the past several decades envisioning and implementing large-scale environmental installations, both in the United States and … [Read more...] about AN EVOLVING ROLE: VERMONT ARTISTS’ KEEN OPTIMISM AND DRIVE TO CREATE

Hello, to all! Having been asked by my editor, Brian Goslow, to go over the summit experiences of my relatively long engagement on the staff of Artscopeas a writer, I’m more than willing. A decade is not a simple snap of the fingers. Writers love to write just as plumber’s love to plumb and, in fact, just as anyone who loves their job, picks up their tools, and begins to feel that lovely heft in their hands. And, as a writer who enjoys laboring over what I write about an arts exhibition, and, equally, enjoys seeing the exhibit I’m writing about multiple times, Artscope’s assignments were, for me, perfectly paced. The average of one or two assignments for a bimonthly publication gave me time to ponder, even sate myself on the art whose virtues I might have thought I plumbed with an extensive first-time viewing. But, no, a second viewing was usually the charm, and, if not, never … [Read more...] about JAMES FORITANO: MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ARTSCOPE WRITER