By Brian Goslow One of our “25 Artists to Watch” in our 2013 seventh anniversary issue, Christina Pitsch has her first solo show at Boston’s Kingston Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave., #43 from July 1 through August 2. “The show will include grand porcelain and brass sculpture highlighting intersecting dichotomies,” Pitsch explained. “The series explores fluid and shifting boundaries between high brow and low brow, beautiful and macabre, elegance and kitsch.” Central to the show are her chandelier forms created during her residency at the New Art Center in Newton. If you’re a fan of traditional and modern folk art (also known as Visionary or Outside Art), you’ll want to see the “Inward Adorings of the Mind: Grassroots Art from the Bennington Museum and Blasdel/ Koch Collections” exhibition that opens July 3 and continues through November 1 at the Bennington Museum, 75 Main St. … [Read more...] about Capsule Previews
Issue Articles
Art’s International Showcase 2015
Art Basel- Anything but Neutral By Clara Rose Thorton Art is a reflection of human life as lived. The tenuous process of creating art mirrors life’s path: projection, uncertainty, connection then disconnection, and navigating surprise. Thus it makes sense to look to collections of contemporary art and individual pathways through the market as vibrant manifestations of a zeitgeist, the mime’s shadow we cannot see. At noon on June 15 in Dublin, Ireland, I received an unexpected Facebook message from the managing editor of this magazine. Several years had passed since writing for artscope in Vermont; full of discovery, the years offered attempts to uncover not only what lay at the core of artists’ minds, but also what their creations expressed of any discernible New England art-world ethos as a whole. Later, as the magazine’s New York City correspondent, I chronicled the effect, … [Read more...] about Art’s International Showcase 2015
A Catalyst for Art Eductation
Blueway Wants You to Get Out By Greg Morell The majestic bend in the Connecticut River that winds its way down throughthe valley of Western Massachusetts, known as ”The Oxbow,” has a long history as a source of inspiration for artists. A rich heritage of expansive tableaus of the curious loop of blue water has been documented by such luminaries as Thomas Cole, Lewis Bryden, Thomas Locker and Robert Masla, to name a few. This August a troupe of painters will follow in the footsteps of those distinguished masters and hike up to a high perch on Skinner Mountain, set up their easels in a painting encampment and survey the exhilarating scene as they set to work with brush in hand. The plein air expedition will be hosted by Kathleen Jacobs as part of the programming of her Blueway Art Alliance, a brand new arts education experiment in Florence, Mass. The Blueway Art Alliance takes its … [Read more...] about A Catalyst for Art Eductation
The Tenacity of the Human Figure
Keeping the Body and Soul Together at Narrows BY Brian Goslow Reaffirming the vitality and resilience of the human figure as the subject that can’t be ignored for long is guest curator Don Wilkinson’s goal for “The Tenacity of the Human Figure,” the Narrows Center for the Arts’ mid-summer exhibition. “Much like the end of painting and the premature report of the death of Mark Twain, the demise of the figure as significant has been greatly exaggerated,” said Wilkinson, a regular contributor to this magazine as well as the New Bedford-based Standard Times.He was visiting the Narrows to seek out future story ideas when director Debra Charlebois asked if he’d like to curate a show there. Wilkinson has curated exhibitions at a variety of galleries and alternative art spaces in Massachusetts and Vermont, and he usually selects a unifying theme. This is the first time he’s tackled “the … [Read more...] about The Tenacity of the Human Figure
Two Views II
The Alberettis at CWAC By Kirstin Nord Bob and Mary Lou Alberetti have trawled for materials and ideas for their art in trips to nearly 30 countries throughout the past 20 years. Encountering the same scenes and vistas, galleries and museums, their individual creativity leads them to work in characteristic ways. Bob most likely will sketch or do preparatory watercolors, while Mary Lou will pull out her camera and zero in on a particular culture’s architectural fragments that speak to her. Bob Alberetti, a professor emeritus at Western Connecticut State University, is an abstract artist who works primarily in oil, collage, mixed media, watercolor and encaustic while Mary Lou Alberetti, a professor emerita of ceramics at Southern Connecticut State University, has worked for much of her life as a ceramist and a sculptor. Both have been increasingly involved with collage in recent years … [Read more...] about Two Views II
Boughton’s American Home
Opening the Door to the Unexpected By Taryn Plumb Imagine you’re relaxing in your cozy, mid-century modern home. You’ve got a book, a drink, a comfy chaise lounge. And then you look out your living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows. Where there might normally be a manicured lawn, kids at play or beatific waving neighbors — this is the unblemished post-war 1950s, after all — instead, here is the bottom of the ocean with driftwood, sea ferns nudged by the current, and fish swimming listlessly. And then suddenly — Damsels in distress! Adventure! Danger! Right outside your windows, two voluptuous, bikini-clad women in peril suddenly appear (one entangled in the undulating arms of a menacing octopus) and three heroic men wielding spears and knives are to the rescue. To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here. … [Read more...] about Boughton’s American Home