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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2025

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March/April 2021

CAPSULE PREVIEWS: March/April 2021

// Current Issue, March/April 2021

by Brian Goslow

Presented as part of the College of the Holy Cross’s Arts Transcending Borders program, the Cantor Art Gallery, One College St., Worcester, Massachusetts, is hosting an artist residency with Kevork Mourad, for which the Syrian-Armenian visual artist has created “Memory Gates” that will be on view from March 4 through April 11. Using his “signature style of spontaneous drawing and printmaking techniques,” the immersive installation is encouraged to be “imagined as a series of doors and passageways that visitors can pass through, will explore themes of cultural plurality and collective memory.” The gallery is open by appointment only Tuesday through Friday from noon-5 p.m. with limited Saturday availability. An exhibition of large-scale acrylic paintings on shaped canvas and watercolor on paper by Clare Asch, “Round Dances and Convergences,” will be on view from March 5 through … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS: March/April 2021

A LASTING IMPRESSION: STUART KNEW THE PROPAGANDIST VALUE OF SYMBOLS

// Community, Current Issue, March/April 2021

by Nancy Nesvet

Forty-four Presidential portraits hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., each unique, reflecting stylistic and political preferences and concerns as visual art codes and signals points of view of society at the time it is produced. Recent events in our nation’s capital have drawn attention to recognizing the artist’s role as documentarian and interpreters of society’s views and preferences. Where a camera is aimed and what a videocam records is dependent on the stance of an artist and their courage to be in a place and time. That has been proven in the videos of the Capitol riots that numerous people have seen on TV and computer screens. Painters and sculptors observe the same requirements and parameters in creating their work. The stance and mind of a sculptor or painter, and the artist’s view of the President, was responsible for the artist’s unique vision and … [Read more...] about A LASTING IMPRESSION: STUART KNEW THE PROPAGANDIST VALUE OF SYMBOLS

A NEW APPROACH TO PROGRAMMING: LEXART’S BROADER OUTREACH, RENOVATED GALLERY

// Community, Current Issue, March/April 2021

by Isabel Barbi

Founded in 1935, Lexington Arts and Crafts (LexArt) continues to service the community and expand in resources and innovation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last 86 years, the educational non-profit collaborative has undergone many intentional and inevitable changes, but the ones enacted in the past year are completely reshaping LexArt to even further “encourage and inspire artisans at all stages of their journeys” and “enrich lives through the power of art and craft,” quoted from their vision and mission statements. In November 2020, Matthew Siegal, former Chair of the Department of Conservatism and Collections Management at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was officially appointed as Executive Director and President of LexArt. Prior to Siegal, the organization was entirely volunteer run until March 2019 when the organization overhauled its internal structure and … [Read more...] about A NEW APPROACH TO PROGRAMMING: LEXART’S BROADER OUTREACH, RENOVATED GALLERY

THE HEART OF THE ARTIST: GASSEL SHARES HIS INFLUENCES WELL AT MORI

// Current Issue, March/April 2021

by Flavia Cigliano

“And suddenly we have a passion, an insatiable desire to create. And this is where it all begins,” so states Alexander Gassel in one of his short stories. In “Painted Poetry,” Gassel’s retrospective at the Museum of Russian Icons, newly-appointed curator Dr. Lana Sloutsky has wisely chosen to include excerpts from the artist’s writings, which she translated from the Russian, as part of the wall text to expand on the visual narrative of his paintings. His desire to create has resulted in works that reflect the heart of the artist — his family, his homeland, his newly adopted country and the many cultural, historical and political crosscurrents affecting his generation. (To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.) … [Read more...] about THE HEART OF THE ARTIST: GASSEL SHARES HIS INFLUENCES WELL AT MORI

CURRENT | UNDERCURRENT: PRESSING ISSUES SPOTLIGHTED AT UMASS AMHERST SHOW

// Current Issue, Featured, March/April 2021

by Hannah Carrigan

In “CURRENT|UNDERCURRENT,” an online show at UMass Amherst’s Hampden Gallery on view through May 14, both the acute and the latent pains of an unequal and unhealed America are exposed, dissected and felt. The exhibition, curated by Linda Griggs and M. Charlene Stevens, is overtly personal and political; consequently, it lends itself to vastly different viewing experiences. The show begins with works curated by Griggs which are organized into four themes: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice, climate change and the economy. These themes reflect “the four key points that then President-elect Biden vowed to address on his first day in office,” and many intersect across and within individual works. The first piece in the exhibition, Christina Marsh’s “One Drop,” features 100 cups containing various shades of chocolate milk. The cups sit in rows on a white painted floor, each … [Read more...] about CURRENT | UNDERCURRENT: PRESSING ISSUES SPOTLIGHTED AT UMASS AMHERST SHOW

10 YEARS. 11 ARTISTS. 2 GALLERIES.: FOUNTAIN STREET CHECKS IN WITH ITS ROOTS

// Current Issue, March/April 2021

by Meredith Cutler

I have to be honest. Thinking back across 10 years is a taxing exercise after the grinding, Groundhog’s Day-esque suspended animation of the past 12 months. But this is an anniversary issue, after all, and Artscope is not the only one celebrating in 2021. Founded by artists Marie Craig and Cheryl (Cherie) Clinton 10 years ago in 2011, the Fountain Street Fine Art gallery in Framingham’s Bancroft Building brought an unexpected variety of exhibits and artists into an area known more for industrial parks than the art market. With a focus on emerging and mid-career artists, the membership gallery quickly grew to anchor the sprawling, circa-1910 warehouse building which already housed over 30 artist studios, a birdseed store, and secondhand furniture and appliance showrooms just west of the Framingham Center train station. On April 6, 2017, the very day an exhibition was … [Read more...] about 10 YEARS. 11 ARTISTS. 2 GALLERIES.: FOUNTAIN STREET CHECKS IN WITH ITS ROOTS