Article Excerpts: Welcome | Cornered: Art Collectors Liz Augustine and Robert Praetorius | Ninety Years Young: Varujan Boghosian in Provincetown | It's Only Natural: Debra Claffey Waxes Poetic | With a Little Help from his Friends: David A. Lang's Journey | Megacities Asia: Thinking Big at the MFA | Off the Wall at Gardner: A Collector Displays her Gems | Rock Solid: Robert Manning at Catamount | Bucolic Innuendo: Joan Baldwin's Marshes | Pictures at an Exhibition | To Shock and Provoke: Everything is Dada at Yale | Photo-Secession at Springfield: Exploring the Roots of a Fine Art | Cubist Chicks and Robot Turkeys: O'Donnell is Seriously Humorous | Outside/In at PAC: Landscape as a Portrait of Humanity | Hope Springs Vernal: Mill Brook Beckons in Full Bloom | An Ancient Medium Evolves: Compelling Progressions at Art Complex | CAA 15th Open Juried Show | Diverse States of Existence: … [Read more...] about May/June 2016
May/June 2016
With a Little Help from his Friends
David A. Lang's Journey by J. Fatima Martins “Journey...” is David A. Lang’s masterpiece self-portrait. The sculpture and installation is the story of how he circled back to himself. Rotating calmly, soothing and subduing chaos, “Journey...” is his personal monomyth. At the center is the artist, a type of Vitruvian Man, placed within geometry — circle and square — connected by dozens of lines. The continuous cycling, a type of masculine weaving, is Lang’s formal and conceptual signature. It is design fragmentation and abstracted realism (memory and dreaming) united and rotating into infinity. Most, but not all of Lang’s more recent kinetic sculptures are similar to “Journey...” — they appear weightless and project the feeling of expansion, fluidity, progression, simplicity and spontaneity. They are precise, but not cold. Some of them are incredibly funny, with poignant … [Read more...] about With a Little Help from his Friends
It’s Only Natural
Debra Claffey Waxes Poetic by Marcia Santore “I’m after the sensation of being with the plants I paint and experiencing their shapes and edges, transformed in line and mark, to two dimensions,” said encaustic painter Debra Claffey, whose work is part of the “Beneath the Surface” exhibition on view through May 28 at the Saco Museum in Saco, Maine; it’ll also be shown in “The Mark of the Brush” exhibition that’ll take place May 23 through June 10 at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, Mass. in conjunction with the Tenth International Encaustic Conference. “The natural world is such a big part of what I choose to paint. My studies in horticulture for my gardening business were an eye-opener to the magnificence of natural systems, such that it became an imperative for me. Plants are so intelligent and adaptable. I loved learning about their communication … [Read more...] about It’s Only Natural
Ninety Years Young
Varujan Boghosian in Provincetown by Marguerite Serkin Varujan Boghosian works from a place of poetry. Born and raised in New Britain, Connecticut in the 1920s, Professor Boghosian has not forgotten the teachers from his early life who influenced him the most. He credits these early teachers with instilling a lifelong passion for learning and discovery, notably poet Constance Carrier, who taught English and Latin at the local high school and was widely regarded for her translations of Propertius and Tibullus. Not one to be limited by classicism, Boghosian is effusive in his admiration of American popular song and film, which he considers among the great art forms of our time. At 90, his enthusiasm is unmitigated. Proving that the most interesting life follows an unpredictable path, during a recent visit to his home Professor Boghosian recounted image-filled stories of … [Read more...] about Ninety Years Young
Cornered: Art Collectors Liz Augustine and Robert Praetorius
by Donna Dodson Sculptor and Artscope correspondent Donna Dodson “met” Liz Augustine on Facebook one day when she sent her a text asking her if she showed her art in Provincetown at Gallery Ehva. One thing led to another and she invited Liz and her husband Robert Praetorius over for dinner. He arrived wearing one of Jennifer Maestre’s earrings and they became fast friends. Augustine and Praetorius reciprocated by inviting Dodson and husband, fellow sculptor and Myth Maker Andy Moerlein, for hors d’oeuvres and a private tour of their art collection. What follows is a synopsis of Dodson’s conversation along with a sneak peek of the collector couple’s favorite pieces. DONNA DODSON: WHAT IS THE FIRST PIECE OF ART YOU PURCHASED? LIZ AUGUSTINE: I grew up with framed art around the house. My mother had collected it from galleries in Manhattan, where she grew up, and from … [Read more...] about Cornered: Art Collectors Liz Augustine and Robert Praetorius
Welcome
Welcome Statement, May/June 2016 by Brian Goslow Welcome to our May/June 2016 issue. For the second straight year, Artscope publisher Kaveh Mojtabai will be heading to Art Basel Switzerland (which takes place from June 16-19), where we’ve once again been selected to have our magazine displayed in its collective booth among the world’s best art publications — and he’ll make a presentation on the magazine to the Basel staff. We’re proud of this honor and have worked extra hard to put together an issue that would represent New England’s visual arts scene at this elite event.. This is just one of the many ways that we continue to strive to support the region’s art galleries, museums and exhibitions. Right after we went to press, Mojtabai was off to jury Massasoit Community College’s Annual Student Juried Show (taking place on May 16 at the Akillian Gallery as part of the … [Read more...] about Welcome