Al Miner, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reviewed almost 800 images before selecting the 75 pieces on view in the South Shore Art Center’s “Works on Paper” exhibition. Oviedo, Florida’s Kevin Haran (for “UFO 3,” which Miner wrote shows that “No computer graphics program can replace the strength and elegance of great draftsmanship”); Bedford, New Hampshire’s Patricia Schappler (whose “Mary,” a charming portrait of a young woman, “beautifully and sensitively captures her simultaneous innocence and budding sexuality”); and Pembroke’s Becky Haletky’s “Art Deco Gone Wild” (that “celebrates the well-deserved conservation” of an early 20th century movie palace), all took home top honors in the show that continues through December 21 at SSAC, 119 Ripley Road, Cohasset, Mass. “Modern Spin: CONtemporary TEXTiles in an Historic Mill” honors the Fall … [Read more...] about Capsule Previews
Issue Articles
Artist Profile: Two Heads are Better than One
THE STORY OF LESLIE FRY’S COLOSSAL ACORNHEAD Leslie Fry had a vision for her work and set out to find the means to realize it. A temporary installation she created at Wave Hill in the Bronx had given her a taste for wanting to cast her five-footlong plaster “AcornHead” in bronze, so Fry took matters into her own hands. She created a GoFundMe campaign through United States Artists in 2010 and successfully raised over $15,000 to cast her plaster “AcornHead” in bronze. Since Tufts University had been one of the biggest donors to her campaign, it got the first loan of the piece in 2011. Amy Schlegel, director of galleries and collections at Tufts, had been a long-time fan and supporter of Fry’s work, and placed the first edition of Fry’s “Colossal Acorn-Head” on its Medford/Somerville campus during the 2011-2012 academic year as part of a new public art initiative. At the same … [Read more...] about Artist Profile: Two Heads are Better than One
Public Art: PLACEMAKING
NEW ENGLAND PUBLIC ARTISTS LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR OTHER REGIONAL ARTISTS TO FOLLOW As the garage door to Susan Champeny’s workshop studio opened, it revealed the test version of her “Snow Saucer Lady Bug” sculpture now on display in Washington, D.C., along with a portion of her “Laundry Bottle Totems” and two Hornbeck Boats Adirondack-style canoes used to install her “ReinCARnation” hubcap lily pads in a pond along Atlanta’s BeltLine Rail Trail in 2012 and neighboring Elm Park in Worcester, Mass. in 2013. There’s also her secondhand drill press, sharpening stone, three tool boxes filled with yard sale and estate sale finds, 10 cases of fasteners, “weird objects I don’t know what to do with” and the “table saw of death,” so named because her father used to flinch when he saw her use it to cut non-traditional materials. “It’s kind of a mess because I’m finishing several projects … [Read more...] about Public Art: PLACEMAKING
Fine Arts Work Center Fellows
ALEXANDRIA SMITH AND BRIDGET MULLEN Provincetown’s Fine Arts Work Center’s Fellowship Program provides a unique opportunity for 10 artists and 10 writers to serve seven-month residencies during the developmental stages of their careers. Over 1,100 applications come in annually with the hope of being selected for the cherished experience that runs from October 1 through May 1. Over 800 fellowships have been served since FAWC’s inception in 1968. There will be a FAWC Fellows at PAAM exhibition from January 23 through February 22 at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 460 Commercial Street, Provincetown. Artscope’s Laura Shabott spoke with Alexandria Smith and Bridget Mullen, two second-year FAWC Fellows, about their experiences with the program, two months into their current residencies. ALEXANDRIA SMITH IN YOUR FIRST-YEAR RESIDENCY, DID YOU FIND OTHER PEOPLE COMING … [Read more...] about Fine Arts Work Center Fellows
Balwin Lee: Black & White
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTH For six years in the 1980s, Baldwin Lee, an Asian-American man from New York, accompanied by “an antique-looking wooden camera and tripod,” explored the impoverished areas of the Deep South with the goal of taking portraits of everyday life, following the inspiration of Walker Evans. When he’d arrive in a town, he’d go to the local police station, tell them his intentions, they’d show him a map and “redline” the areas he should avoid — almost always those concentrated with African-Americans — and then he’d head straight to those areas he was warned about, trusting the sincerity of his intentions to protect him when he asked residents if he could take their picture. “I am impressed by the sheer guts it took him to enter into each situation, to stand face-to-face with people of such poverty, and showcase the beauty of their humanity and spirit in … [Read more...] about Balwin Lee: Black & White
Walking the Walk
REVITALIZING PAWTUCKET'S ART SCENE In Pawtucket, “Chalk Wall,” a text-based installation by New Orleans artist Candy Chang, curves around a building’s retaining wall on the city’s Main Street. The sweep of the installation’s blackboard surface begins with the words, “In my lifetime… I want to…” Chalk is available for passersby to complete this sentence. The artist’s concept includes instructions pertaining to presentation and often an understanding as to predetermined duration. On the “Chalk Wall,” people can write whatever comes to mind, including personal insight or a testimony of some kind. The possibilities are endless. This temporary outdoor installation is meant to draw people from interior spaces into an interactive public dialogue. In whatever city it appears — and it has appeared in cities across the globe, including Wellfleet this past summer, thanks to the farm … [Read more...] about Walking the Walk