CATHY WYSOCKI'S OUT-LANDISH CREATURES Having hopped off the Red Line at the JFK/UMass stop, then wending my way along Dorchester Avenue to #950, I morph from commuter to intrepid reporter and explorer/aid worker. It’s a complex transformation but I can handle it. I’m human, I multi-task. We came from the sea and adapted to the land, and now we’re heading pell-mell to outer space — or maybe back to the sea? — where we’ll don adaptive clothing and/or even grow adaptive tissues and organs. Artist Cathy Wysocki’s humanoid creatures have migrated off gallery walls from a two-dimensional planet called Lumplandia and landed — some with an audible “WHUMP!,” others as lightly as a whisper — here amid the white walls and sturdy floors of Dorchester’s Hallspace. James Foritano … [Read more...] about Suffer a Sea-Change
November/December 2014
The Centennial Exhibition
THE GUILD OF BOSTON ARTISTS' LEGACY CONTINUES When you visit the Guild of Boston Artists, celebrating 100 years at its Newbury Street location this November, you’re quickly reminded of how much the “Boston School” style — and the teachings of its founders — has defined what it means to be a New Englander. These are paintings and sculpture that perfectly portray our maritime heritage; visually preach the value of the handmade; promote the beauty of our rivers, lakes and streams; and honor every last blade of grass, spit of ocean rain, ray of early morning sunlight and sparkling crystal of snow, confirming our inner feeling and appreciation for New England’s always unpredictable four seasons in all of their splendor and challenges. While it still holds the echoes of its founders (including Edmund Tarbell, William Paxton and Frank Benson) who, feeling (not unlike many modern day … [Read more...] about The Centennial Exhibition
Medley
DERRYFIELD GOES FOR THE GOLD “MEDLEY,” a group exhibition at the Lyceum Gallery at Derryfield School in Manchester, N.H., brings together four talented artists from four decades of Derryfield graduates. To celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary, Derryfield art teacher Andy Moerlein (artscope magazine, September/October 2011) has developed a series of exhibitions featuring alumni artists that will extend through the entire academic year. To enter the gallery, a visitor first rings the doorbell at the front entrance to the school and is buzzed in. After checking in with the receptionist, you are directed to follow the corridors to the gallery, composed of two hallways adjoining at right angles. Each body of work is accompanied by information about the artist and their reflections about their education as artists at Derryfield. Wall signs with titles, media and comments for each … [Read more...] about Medley
Coyote Connections
HONORING ONE OF MAINE'S NATIVE SONS Geri Vistein and Anne Zill have co-curated “Coyote Connections,” a group show featuring over 30 artists from Maine. Through paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs and sculptures, the subject of the coyote is invoked and presented in an exciting visual array, from the realistic to the spiritual, the figurative to the imaginative, the reverent to the evocative, the coyote and its relationship to the landscape and the people of Maine takes shape. It is a densely hung show, with something for everyone to experience. Vistein and Zill joined forces to mount this show, and chose the coyote, as opposed to the crocodile, polar bear or tarantula, because the coyote lives in Maine. Many artists in Maine have had experiences with the animal that informed their process of creating new work for this show. Furthermore, the subject of the coyote … [Read more...] about Coyote Connections
Boston Printmakers and Claudia Flynn
PALATE TO PLATE: PRINTS AND RECIPES FROM MEMBERS OF THE BOSTON PRINTMAKERS Two unrelated exhibitions, one a large collection of works on paper by various artists, the other an intimate group of mixed-media sculptures and paintings by one author, appear to be at variance with each other, but they share a significant conceptual subject: time. In mood, one exhibition is intoxicating, the other sober. “Palate to Plate” shows us the happy and innocent relationship we have with food in the present moment — the here and now of living. In “Solemnities,” Claudia Flynn’s evocative assemblages remind us of our impermanent status — what was and what remains. Formally, the methods and media on display achieve expression through chemical-sensitive and laborious applications requiring intensive equipment. These manners of working are controlled communication tools employed to build and … [Read more...] about Boston Printmakers and Claudia Flynn
Manna
TUFT'S FEAST FOR THE SOUL Culled from Tufts University’s permanent art collection, “Manna” is a commanding, panoramic and wonderful art-feast curated by its director of galleries and collections, Amy Ingrid Schlegel. From over 2,000 noteworthy original artworks, Schlegel selected 46 pieces that delineate an astoundingly vast range of significant art, dating from the 15th Century to current day. And what a delectable banquet for one’s artistic soul she has served up; transcending chronological order to enhance comparative reflection, Schlegel discerningly organized the artworks into three categories: Face, Body and Ground. Facing the exhibition, one enters a well lit room with pristine white walls and is forthrightly greeted with an exquisitely detailed woodcut, “The Flight Into Egypt,” 1511, by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), a German graphic artist and painter widely considered … [Read more...] about Manna