A CRITICAL LOOK AT BLACK PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY by James Foritano When the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art opened last fall in Harvard Square, just behind Peet’s Coffee, I was overjoyed, since there’s now somewhere in the square one can enter and leave with rich takings without being followed out the door by some officious busybody pestering you about “private property.” Of course, here you have to bring something in, leave it behind and come back again to re-examine the changes that have occurred since you left it there. But you’re up to that, I know, or we wouldn’t be talking. To accommodate a mid-August deadline, gallery director Vera Grant provided a preview of the exhibition three weeks prior to its official opening on September 2. Fortuitously, nothing on the walls had any identifying text so the exhibition, “Black Chronicles II,” curated by … [Read more...] about Black Chronicles II
Issue Articles
Examining South Africa at Beard and Weil
A THOUGHT-PROVOKING DIALOGUE IN THREE EXHIBITS by Suzanne Volmer For its first presentation of the fall 2015 semester, Wheaton College is hosting a three-part exhibition that provides a timely look at South African contemporary art viewpoints in relation to an American artist’s statement. The Beard Gallery is featuring “Unsettled: One Hundred Years War of Resistance,” photography by South African artist Cedric Nunn, alongside “Johannesburg in Print,” a selection of prints made at David Krut Workshop (DKW), a fine art printmaking facility located in Johannesburg, South Africa. A site-specific installation, Providence based artist James Montford’s “The Planetarium of Black Indian Constellations,” is located in Wheaton’s Weil Gallery, which nests inside of the larger Beard Gallery. Curator Michele L’Heureux developed her concept for the shows after hearing about Women’s & … [Read more...] about Examining South Africa at Beard and Weil
Center for Contemporary Printmaking
CELEBRATING A 20-YEAR COLLABORATION by Kristin Nord Since 1995, The Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP) has cultivated a vibrant network of artists who use its equipment and services. This fall, visitors to the non-profit center in Norwalk, Conn. will be treated to what promises to be a spectacular 20th anniversary celebratory retrospective. The exhibition, partially underwritten by the International Fine Print Dealers Association, will showcase high quality prints from leading artists of the 20th century. From the painterly woodcuts of Helen Frankenthaler to the eight-color screen prints of poppies by Donald Sultan, the show will display a wide range of work by artists who are masters of various techniques. There will be prints by Michael Mazur, Robert Andrew Parker and Robert Cottingham, and gems culled from the CCP archives, including works by Rufino Tamayo, Robert … [Read more...] about Center for Contemporary Printmaking
New Hampshire Art Association
SALUTING 75 YEARS OF COMMUNITY by Greg Morell Artists have strong personalities, passionate and independent, and making art in most cases is a very solitary labor. Artists, usually driven by economic need, band together to form co-ops and collectives; unfortunately, the result is often short-lived. However, this year the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) celebrates a 75-year history. Their membership boasts 250 members and an ample storefront gallery at 130 State Street in downtown Portsmouth, just a block from the city center. Its 36th Annual Parfitt Open Photography Juried Exhibition (juried by Julee Holcomb) takes place from September 2 through 26, and in October, they will hold a members-only plein air showcase. Plein air painting is a mainstay of the Association and is hosted in weekly “Paint Outs” in and around the Portsmouth environs. Much of the success of the NHAA … [Read more...] about New Hampshire Art Association
Give The People What They Want
ROZHON AND WHEELER’S AUTUMN EQUINOX by J. Fatima Martins In a time when many contemporary commercial art galleries are closing, business acumen and good old fashioned “people sense” is the “secret sauce” holding together the successful art partnership between gallerist Anita Trezvant and her cadre of artists, notably regional favorite Ann Rozhon. Trezvant’s Hope Gallery, located in Bristol, Rhode Island’s charming historic downtown, celebrates 11 years in operation in December. It is a highly approachable space reflecting Trezvant’s authentic personality. Her common sense coupled with a clever and experimental instinct often direct her to taking in new artistic voices in hope of attracting a broader audience of savvy collectors, sometimes exhibiting abstraction, new-media photography and design-focused sculpture. “My customers want to take home something beautiful that they … [Read more...] about Give The People What They Want
Flat Depth
PAUL ROUSSO ADDS ANOTHER DIMENSION by Meredith Cutler Candy wrappers. Currency. Newspapers, movie posters and comic books. At once crisp, well-worn and confrontationally familiar, Paul Rousso’s larger-than-life sculptures are ... unavoidable. A Southern child matured in the post-Pop, neo-expressionist Bay Area and New York City cultural scenes of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Rousso iconizes paper with a curatorial eye, a wealth of culture- buff detritus and an obsessive attention to finish detail straight out of the commercial design world where he started his “on paper” career as an art director for Revlon Cosmetics. Rousso’s work focuses around an idea he’s coined “flat depth.” Noting that the arc of Western art history has traced artists’ attempts to first render the illusion of perspective on a flat surface and then to refute depth in modern and post-modern art Rousso’s … [Read more...] about Flat Depth