BUSINESS Almost 18 years ago, fresh out of a five-year career as a technology business journalist and working my first art gallery job, there was a lot of conversation in my new profession on how the Internet was changing how collectors purchased art. Some wondered if the experience of visiting our brick-and-mortar art galleries would be replaced by e-commerce web sites. This isn’t quite how things turned out. Brick and mortar galleries and the Internet have formed a symbiotic relationship. With gallery rents rising and “art fair fatigue” having long since set in among both gallerists and collectors, more and more art dealers are turning to Internet offerings as the most cost-effective way to share available inventory to as many collectors around the world as possible. Art commerce web-based businesses such as Artnet, Artsy, Paddle8 and 1stdibs have not replaced art … [Read more...] about SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS: FRAONE’S DOS AND DON’TS
May/June 2018
ART BASEL 2018 PREVIEW: WHAT’S NEW?
EVENT ART BASEL MESSEPLATZ 10 4005 BASEL SWITZERLAND JUNE 14 THROUGH 17 Artscope Magazine is again represented in the Publications Section at the 49th edition of Art Basel, taking place from June 12 through 17 in Basel, Switzerland. As the art market shifts from physical galleries to increasing online and art fair sales, 290 galleries from 35 countries will exhibit in Halls 1 and 2 on the Messe Basel as Art Basel stages the world’s biggest art fair. Sixteen mid-size and emerging galleries will exhibit here for the first time, with three more leaping from the proposal-driven Statements and Features sector into Galleries. Unlimited, Statements and Galleries will show photography, painting, drawing. sculpture, video and installations, with outdoor installations and sculpture at Parcours at the Cathedral Square. Films and Conversations, including informative talks by artists … [Read more...] about ART BASEL 2018 PREVIEW: WHAT’S NEW?
TRANSCENDING SPACE AND TIME: SUGIMOTO’S LIMITLESS VISION
NATIONAL IMAGE BUILDING: HOW PHOTOGRAPHY TRANSFORMS ARCHITECTURE (GROUP SHOW) PARRISH ART MUSEUM SOUTHHAMPTON, NEW YORK THROUGH JUNE 17 SEEKING STILLNESS (GROUP SHOW) MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON THROUGH SEPTEMBER 3 WHAT ABSENCE IS MADE OF (GROUP SHOW) HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN WASHINGTON D.C. THROUGH SUMMER 2019 FOR MORE INFORMATION: SUGIMOTOHIROSHI.COM Hiroshi Sugimoto — a photographer, landscape designer, philosopher and architect — is again adding to his multifaceted resume. A brilliant photographer who told me that photography was his ticket to seeing the world, he has explored the definition of photography and the limits of visualizing history and cultural tourism. Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, former Tufts University professors, amassed a significant collection of Sugimoto’s photographic work, allowing viewers in New England to access much … [Read more...] about TRANSCENDING SPACE AND TIME: SUGIMOTO’S LIMITLESS VISION
MOLDING THEIR VISIONS: STATE OF CLAY IN LEXINGTON
REVIEW 10TH BIENNIAL STATE OF CLAY LEXINGTON ARTS & CRAFTS SOCIETY 130 WALTHAM STREET LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS MAY 5 THROUGH JUNE 3 There are forlorn figures of bare-foot young women wearing insects as accessories. “Wooden” Trojan horses with functional wheels. A modern-day interpretation of Cerberus, the (typically three-headed) Greek hound of Hades bearing an inscription from Virgil, “And his triple jaws forgot to bark.” Varying in scope, size and subject matter, the unifying element of these pieces is one of the oldest artistic mediums known to humans: clay. “What does clay say and where is it going?” asked Alice Abrams, exhibit co-chair and co-founder. “It keeps expanding in its creative reach and its ability to say different things.” It’s a question that the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society has posed for more than 20 years. The answer — … [Read more...] about MOLDING THEIR VISIONS: STATE OF CLAY IN LEXINGTON
BITTEN BY THE SAME BUG: IN THE GARDEN AT SHELBURNE
REVIEW IN THE GARDEN SHELBURNE MUSEUM 6000 SHELBURNE ROAD SHELBURNE, VERMONT THROUGH AUGUST 26 On the eve of New England’s fourth Nor’easter (with a fifth predicted), I am listening to installation artist Jennifer Angus speak about the insects, dirt and decay — yes, all those things we cringe at — that are the inspiration for her current exhibition at the Shelburne Museum. Angus is fascinated by bugs — their wispy wings, the intricate design of their antennae, the moiré-like sheen of their exocuticle and, of course, their function as integral participants in global ecology. For most of us, that fascination with insects dissipates somewhere between reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and Kafka. Angus recalls fondly the joys of entering a natural history museum: those old glass cases, the creaky wooden floors and the scent of preservatives. Over her 20-year career, she … [Read more...] about BITTEN BY THE SAME BUG: IN THE GARDEN AT SHELBURNE
CAPSULE PREVIEWS
Juxtaposing the “satiated and the hungry,” the 10-panel “The Hunger Dream” highlights the “Ronald Slayton: Master of Watercolor” exhibition on view from May 1 through June 29 at the T.W. Wood Gallery at the Center for Arts & Learning, 46 Barre St., Montpelier, Vermont. Seen as one, the 1985 work “becomes more than the sum of its separate parts. Slayton’s almost naive, simple, boldly stated images directly confront the viewer today as much as in the past.” It’s joined by a second watercolor mural, “The Last Supper,” as well as 12 late-period watercolor works from the private collection of Billi and Bobby Gosh. Slayton, whose early career included employment as an artist in the Vermont Division of the federally funded Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1936-1939, passed away in 1992. Also on view: Slayton’s woodcuts “Social Activities of the ‘30s,” “Clearing the Fields” and … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS