A SYNERGISTIC BLEND IN PTOWN Laura Shabott In concert with the International Encaustic Conference hosted annually by the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, artists/curators Lia Rothstein and Sherrie Posternak are bringing their weeklong “Photosynthesis” exhibition to Julie Heller Gallery East. “Encaustic is a translucent material that can be used in many ways, from direct painting to embedding, to working sculpturally, to transferring an image, or to collaging different materials together,” said Cherie Mittenthal, executive director of Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, artist and co-producer of the conference with Joanne Mattera. She continued, “[Photosynthesis]” brings all of that together with six interesting artists taking their work in very different directions but all sharing the mediums of photography and encaustic.” While attending last year’s … [Read more...] about PHOTOSYNTHESIS

NBMAA’S 47TH MEMBERS’ SHOW Kristin Nord The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) is serving up a lively stew of works by 90 emerging artists from throughout New England in an exhibit running through May 28. Sarah Fritchey, full-time curator and gallery director at Artspace New Haven, set aside her normal duties to serve as 2017 guest curator of “Nor’Easter,” the 47th annual NBMAA’s member exhibition that brims with color and content. This year’s prize winners include fine art photographer Tracy Hoffman of Chappaqua, New York, conceptual artist Cecil Gresham of Bloomfield, Conn., and mixed-media artist Anita Gangi Balkun of West Hartford, who took third prize for her work, “Shoe Scribe.” National artists 18 years or older with current NBMAA membership were eligible, with submissions of original works accepted in all media, provided they were executed during the … [Read more...] about A PERFECT STORM

Michael Mansfield Eric Taubert As the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) prepares to open the doors for its 64th Season on May 1, a new executive director stands at the helm. After a nine-month nationwide search, the museum board selected Michael Mansfield, former curator of film and media arts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, to fill the position. Ogunquit fine art photographer (and frequent Artscope contributor) Eric Taubert “cornered” Mansfield in mid-April, as the newly minted executive director was hard at work preparing the galleries for opening day. The dialogue they shared casts clarifying light on Mansfield’s intentions to deliver the OMAA into a new and vibrant era — while continuing to honor everything people have long come to know and love about the venerated museum. SO, TELL ME … WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE OF AMERICA’S FOREMOST EXPERTS IN NEW MEDIA ART … [Read more...] about Cornered: Michael Mansfield

YOUNG RUSSIANS AT SHATTUCK Don Wilkinson During a recent press conference in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that he told Vladimir Putin that relations between the United States and Russia had reached “a low point.” It’s hard to argue with that observation. Between rumored Russian tampering in the U.S. presidential election, increased accusations of expansionism and global overreach between the two nations, and the U.S. bombing of a Syrian airbase, at which some Russian military were assigned, it seems that the old Cold War has heated up again. With an ominous cloud of international mistrust and apprehension in the atmosphere, it is indeed a moment of serendipity as a sextet of young Russian painters exhibit at the Dedee Shattuck Gallery in Westport, Mass. Curator Ben Shattuck (son of … [Read more...] about FROM ST. PETERSBURG WITH LOVE

GOING WITH THE GRAIN Beth Neville Coming full circle in his long life as a sculptor, Nick Edmonds creates sculptural worlds filled with people, boats, clouds and rocks. Each carefully carved wood sculpture takes the viewer to a extraordinary place. “Crystal Creek Pond” depicts his childhood memories of swimming in his grandfather’s trout pond. Small, carved wood pieces become hills, trees reflected in water, a quiet pond, or pebble rocks of glacial till. As an adolescent, Edmonds delighted in carving balsa wood into boats and people. Today, still carving small wood pieces, he combines them into detailed scenes and then paints the wood to tell his stories. They’ll be in “Pastoral” throughout May and June at the Catamount Arts Gallery in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Each sculpture’s title clearly indicates Edmonds’ interpretational intensions. But the works are vague enough … [Read more...] about NICK EDMONDS IN VT

MICHELMAN MAKES SPACE Marguerite Serkin It is not often that the creative output of an artist matches her intellectual capacities. For Elizabeth Michelman, there is context and conceptual reasoning behind her creative choices as an artist and in exhibition design. She is able to convey the impetus behind her multi-faceted implementation through words and visual cues within the works themselves. Michelman, a longtime Artscope contributor, is notably versatile in her use of multimedia genres. Her artistic output as sculptor, installation artist, writer, and videographer and her two-dimensional constructs are linked under the aegis of Michelman’s clearly defined yet evolving aesthetic. The artist is able to convey tone and form through discreet choices in color and a deceptively whimsical placement of content which belies a strong, implied spatial understanding. Her “Notes … [Read more...] about NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND