Instinctive Formations at Shattuck by Don Wilkinson Westport, MA - Midway through April and in anticipation of an exhibition at the Dedee Shattuck Gallery in Westport, Mass. that would not open until June, I visited the studio of Rebecca Hutchinson in bucolic Rochester, Mass., just north of New Bedford. Hutchinson, who has been a professor of ceramics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 2001, has a multifaceted workspace including a small and simple woodshop, printmaking studio and papermaking gear, as well as kilns and ceramics production equipment. And clearly she uses it all, sometimes as the tools of a solitary craft, but more often combining the elements of the various disciplines to create complex and ornate three-dimensional works deployed as singular sculptures or as structures formulated as components of large, site-specific installations. Her … [Read more...] about Diverse States of Existence

by Brian Goslow Art work of dresses and shoes by Patricia Canney, Susan Freda, Holly Gaboriault, Larisa Martino, Kelly O’Neal and Kyle Ragsdale are on view through May 27 in “Fashion Statements” at the ArtProv Gallery in the Doran Building, 150 Chestnut St., Providence, R.I. “The pieces in this exhibit are as beautiful as they are varied,” said the gallery’s co-owner Michele Aucoin. “Yet what unites them is the artists’ love of fashion icons.” There’s a series of events tied to the show — a “Girls Night Out” art and fashion shopping experience on May 13 from 5-9 p.m.; expanded evening hours from 5-9 p.m. during Gallery Night Providence on May 19 and The Artists Loop hosts a talk with artists Gaboriault and Martino on May 25 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. -- “Lowell and Beyond,” a collection of paintings of New England landscapes and cityscapes by William Gotha, is the debut … [Read more...] about May/June 2016 Capsule Previews

Looking for Direction at Thompson Gallery by Ali Russo It’s the first piece I see and, from a distance, it almost looks like a photograph: a man and his son stand on the sidewalk of a crowded, urban, black and white street, the man’s attention held entirely by the phone in his palm. Clinging to his leg is his son, peering past the foreground with his back to the viewer as he stares down the road, almost looking to the people who are frozen in moments of candidness. Amid the hues of whites and grays that inundate their world, the two are the only things that stand in full color Examining the detail of the work even further, it’s not a photograph, but an acrylic painting by Jennifer Amenta entitled “Searching….” Up close, the viewer is able to see that although the father and son stand in full color, they are not as detailed as the people behind them; to me, it seems to … [Read more...] about Nowhere Everywhere

Contemporary Works at Sharon Arts by Brian Goslow The New Hampshire Institute of Art is celebrating the grand reopening of its Sharon Arts Center Gallery with an exhibition built around “The Thing in the Spring” series of concerts and art events presented by the Glass Museum that takes place annually in downtown Peterborough. The reopened gallery, which features new walls, floors and museum-quality lighting, was renovated by Dennis Mires and builder Hutter Construction and will provide area artists with a new professional showcase for their work. … [Read more...] about In, On, and Around Music

A Living Narrative by J. Fatima Martins Installed in a shoebox-shaped gallery, “Sonograms” by Karen Margolis offers a dialogue about the hybridization of conceptual art, domestic craft, alternative abstract painting process, science, architecture and design. The installation is intellectually dense, yet appears physically delicate. In color and form it is joyful, elegant, light and airy, projecting the illusion of simplicity. This “easy quality” is a smart conceptual trick, seducing the viewer into a complicated world that is psychologically probing and sly. For Margolis, the main concern is to achieve a type of evolving emotional minimalism and layered spatial fluidity. She remarked that one inspiration for the Sonogram space was Monet’s impressionistic Water Lily environments. What is missing — transitional and hidden in depths — is as important as what’s solid, … [Read more...] about Karen Margolis’ Sonogram