In the New England Wax exhibition “Transparency,” on view at Wellfleet Preservation Hall from May 21 to June 27, encaustic, wax is employed in many different media combinations to explore diverse concepts of what compromises art today. An art technique most famous for its role in the Fayum Egyptian funerary portraits of 100-300 AD, encaustic has been thor- oughly modernized. With subjects that range from abstract to realism, birds to beaches and swirly lines to geometric shapes, a look at “Transparency” should convince anyone that encaustic deserves one’s attention for its beauty and creativity that uses light, texture, form and color. Some of the exhibiting artists work to exploit the inherent luminosity of the medium. Janet Lesniak’s “Sea Sky,” shows off the depths of the materials to evoke a frothy blue water and complex cloud sky. Her “Sand.Sea.Sky.” also works the medium to great … [Read more...] about ACT OF TRANSPARENCY IN WELLFLEET: NEW ENGLAND WAX PROMOTES INTEREST IN ENCAUSTIC ARTS

In “Pondering Environmental Anxieties,” Patricia Fietta and George LeMaitre have put together an extravagant call and response phenomenon to be displayed this May at Future Lab(s) Gallery in North Adams, Massachusetts. Utilizing the rather large, elongated space of the gallery, the pair has gathered a variety of installations in several different mediums, all heartfelt, yet many a humorous response to the ever-growing problem of environmental instability. Ranging from graphics to sculptures and everything in between, Fietta and LeMaitre explore the conceptual aesthetics of the very act of the Earth’s ultimate survival in the face of climate change denial and offer inescapable knowledge and information. The artists are master storytellers, their knowledge taking the forefront of this exhibition in the form of both image and words. Almost every individual work in the show is informative. … [Read more...] about A HUMOROUS RESPONSE TO INSTABILITY: FIETTA & LEMAITRE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS AT FUTURE LAB(S)

The 40th anniversary of the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit will be commemorated with a host of activities and uniquely exciting exhibitions throughout the year. The piece-de-resistance is the Christo-like wrapping of the museum in a massive quilt created by renowned quilt maker Joe Cunningham. Annie Dean, Cahoon’s consulting curator, said that after fiddling with the idea of using recycled vinyl banners for the job, she came up with the idea of using colorful spinnaker sails. “My husband’s family has owned the boat, ‘Freedom,’ for over 60 years. It is a 100-year-old Herreshoff 12 1/2 and it is a very special wooden boat that is no longer made. My husband grew up racing in it and used the spinnaker often. Last summer we put the spinnaker up just for fun and that is when I got the idea,” Dean explained. In an edition of “The Quilt Report,” that he regularly produces for YouTube … [Read more...] about THE LITTLE MUSEUM WHICH COULD: CUNNINGHAM’S QUILTS HELP THE CAHOON CELEBRATE