The State of Clay in Lexington by Taryn Plumb Clay: What does the word bring to mind? Earthenware pots sold along a desert road amidst swirls of dust? Armies of identical figurines? Mass-made tchotchkes? Then you’ve never really seen what clay can do. … [Read more...] about Beyond Pots and Figurines

National Prizes for a Wealth of Talent by Brian Goslow In jurying the Cambridge Art Association’s 15th National Prize and Open Juried Show, Paul C. Ha, director of MIT’s LIST Visual Arts Center, culled through over 1100 entries from 400 artists located in 20 states. The end result is a high-level, should-see exhibition of 61 selected works, starting with Kate Holcomb Hale’s “No Cars Falling Down,” a mixed-media installation constructed of charcoal, paper, latex paint and vinyl that was awarded Best of Show. Hale said the piece is “an investigation of edges — the edge of a sheet of paper, the corner of a room — and space.” She rejects the traditional boundaries of drawing. Hale explained, “My drawings contort, expand and spill onto walls, ceiling and floors. The result is material merging with architecture.” … [Read more...] about CAA 15th Open Juried Show

Compelling Progressions at Art Complex by Elizabeth Michelman The encaustic paintings of Pat Gerkin, Donna Hamil Talman and Charyl Weissbach being shown on the walls of the ArtComplex Museum in Duxbury this spring share in a knowing dialogue. The three artists in “Compelling Progressions” first became acquainted through participation in the New England Wax Society. Happily, they fall close together on the spectrum of current work in this evolving medium. It requires deftness and consummate control to manage the pyrotechnics of hot wax. Yet a number of artists are passionate about encaustic’s many desirable features, combining physical and technical possibilities that were previously divided among a host of other paint media. The ancient yet contemporary material possesses an unsurpassable luminosity, malleability, adhesive capacity, and above all, reversibility through … [Read more...] about An Ancient Medium Evolves

Mill Brook Beckons in Full Bloom by Marcia Santore Signs of spring were few and far between in April in New Hampshire this year, but Pam Tarbell, owner of Mill Brook Gallery and Sculpture Garden in Concord, is providing a “Spring Celebration” nonetheless. The exhibition features work by eight painters and one sculptor from New England, and will run through June 26. The Mill Brook Gallery and Sculpture Garden is an appropriate venue for this exhibition based in the natural world. The gallery is located on a lovely horse farm only a 10-minute drive from downtown Concord, N.H. Outside, the sculpture garden extends around the building and down a long, dirt driveway to the street, with works set among gardens, fields, woods and a nearby pond. Inside, there are two downstairs galleries that show work by Mill Brook’s stable of artists and the upstairs gallery that hosts … [Read more...] about Hope Springs Vernal

Landscape as a Portrait of Humanity by J. Fatima Martins Be it skyscape, seascape or cityscape, the art of landscape is a much-loved ubiquitous and eclectic subject. It can be depicted in countless physical and conceptual manners — realist or abstracted, subject pure or hybrid, hard-edged or expressive. It contains the all-encompassing sublime; it’s a metaphor, symbol and a dichotomous place, and the foundation and diorama containing everything. To celebrate the enduring power of this form, the Providence Art Club (PAC), guided by gallery coordinator Michael Rose, presents “Outside/ In,” a conceptually clever exhibition honoring tradition while looking to the artistic future. At its most simple, the exhibition presents how artists “bring the outdoors inside,” and on a deeper level, it explores the meeting place of exterior/interior as an emotional state where the … [Read more...] about Outside/In at PAC

O'Donnell is Seriously Humorous by Molly Hammill When I pulled up to the house Patrick O’Donnell’s grandfather built on the North Shore of Boston, he was standing on the front porch waiting for me — hands in his pockets, eyes on the lookout for his expected guest. O’Donnell doesn’t have a cell phone. No website. No computer. No email address. I’d called his home phone a few days earlier to set up a time to interview him and see some of his art. I expected a reticent technophobe. He pulled a hand up for a salutary wave and shot me a grin, friendly eyes smiling behind his bifocals. “Park right there. That’s fine,” he said. I fumbled around my car for a pen, wallet, cell phone, keys, purse and camera. Once I made it up to the porch he met me with a painter’s handshake and a face that expressed a kind of gracious and appreciative curiosity. O’Donnell grew up in Beverly … [Read more...] about Cubist Chicks and Robot Turkeys