“An artist once said that paint picks up what life does to us. My practice has always been informed by my experience in the world. The act of painting is a bodily response and a gestural event where energy passes from the heart to the brush, absent of self-conscious thought. This leads to a place of authenticity, possibilities and clarity. These paintings were an attempt to escape the sabotage of the conscious mind and allow the paint to maintain its physicality and rawness, mirroring the intensity of the subject.” — Wendy Cretella Hodge, introducing the paintings featured in her “Ukraine: Heart and Brush” series. Since war broke out in Ukraine in February, I’ve had trouble focusing on the stories and images coming out of there each day because of the horrific, irreversible damage being inflicted on the country physically, emotionally and psychologically. Having spent more than three … [Read more...] about EXPRESSING WHAT WORDS COULD NOT: CRETELLA HODGE’S UKRAINE SERIES AT GALLERY 55
Issue Articles
A TIME & PLACE FOR CELEBRATION: PAO ARTS CENTER’S ANNIVERSARY HONORS AAPI COMMUNITY
The dancers were like lit matches. We, on the other hand were five years late, and yet, on April 21, we are taken in like family at the Pao Arts Center, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, for its presentation of Lenora Lee Dance’s “Convergent Waves: Boston,” an immersive, multi-media dance performance to celebrate the contributions of local activists and non-profit leaders in Boston’s Chinatown community. The Pao Arts Center’s philosophy is that we are all late- comers to this favored continent of North America, and we’re all dancers thinking that wherever our own feet hit the ground is ours to keep. And we’re so right. And so wrong! Since the present pandemic has claimed this world as its very own, my fellow adventurer, Madeleine, and I have barely ridden the Red Line, so we jumped at the chance when we were invited to “Convergent Wave’s” world premiere. We traveled by T … [Read more...] about A TIME & PLACE FOR CELEBRATION: PAO ARTS CENTER’S ANNIVERSARY HONORS AAPI COMMUNITY
DISPLACEMENT ACROSS CULTURES: SELF-REFLECTION & HEALING AT MOSESIAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Is the pandemic over? It looks like social behavior will be the determinant of that! So far, 2022 has been shaping up to be a memorable and celebratory artful year. Could the art world mark the ending of this global health crisis? All corners of the world are finally hosting biennials, triennials, retrospectives, art fairs, festivals, and the cherry on top is that traveling resumes. We are back in business, not business as usual... but something in between. For those who don’t have a magic carpet or cannot attend exciting and glamorous art events abroad, there is no shortage of local and regional options to experience the art world. Located eight miles from Boston in Watertown, the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts presents, from May 5 to June 30, an exhibition that brings artists’ personal experiences, including fiction and non-fiction narratives, with political, … [Read more...] about DISPLACEMENT ACROSS CULTURES: SELF-REFLECTION & HEALING AT MOSESIAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
TRULY EXCEPTIONAL: ARGHAVAN KHOSRAVI’S POTENT PAINTINGS AT THE CURRIER
What do you think is the average time museum-goers spend looking at art? A study in 2001 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art indicated the average time spent looking at great works of art was 27.2 seconds. Fast forward to 2017, when the Art Institute of Chicago conducted the same study and found an increase to 28.63 seconds. I predict a current exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, will skew the numbers of those studies. Upward. Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi’s first museum exhibition — at the Currier — won’t be her last museum show. She creates surrealist images that explore themes of exile, suppression and empowerment. Her enigmatic compositions center on female protagonists and allude to the restrictions of human rights, particularly those of women and immigrants. Usually, I have no problem describing a piece of art — and its medium or … [Read more...] about TRULY EXCEPTIONAL: ARGHAVAN KHOSRAVI’S POTENT PAINTINGS AT THE CURRIER
POIGNANT REFLECTIONS: 400 YEARS OF METHODS AND TECHNIQUES AT RISD MUSEUM
Five exhibits are currently on display at the RISD Museum, “Drawing Closer: Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum,” “Trading Earth: Ceramics, Commodities, and Commerce,” “Striking Chords: Music in Ukiyo-e Prints,” “Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability,” and “Inherent Vice.” And each exhibition highlights a different aspect of the RISD Museum’s collection and mission as an institution. First, “Drawing Closer” brings together 67 works by European artists dating back to the 16th century that “consider how and why drawings were created, paying special attention to the materials they were made of and to the functions they served both in the artist’s studio and in the world outside it.” While each of the drawings in this exhibition is a masterful example of illustration, two in particular stuck out. First, Jane Ogden’s “Bluebells and Primroses with a Bird’s … [Read more...] about POIGNANT REFLECTIONS: 400 YEARS OF METHODS AND TECHNIQUES AT RISD MUSEUM
‘A PAINTING IS A PRACTICE’: KIRSTIN LAMB’S FLORAL REMIX AT THE TERZIAN GALLERY
Providence painter Kirstin Lamb’s early paintings were mushrooming accumulations of appropriated images referencing the history of domestic décor, portraiture and still life. Rendered in a style of artless caricature that masked her superior drafting skill, the encyclopedic scope of her imagery always suggested richer undercurrents. Lamb’s early paintings and drawings reflected the vanitas tradition of Dutch Master still life. She tossed in every kind of object or image that might grace a home or studio’s walls, complicating these collections with her own striped and dotted abstract designs and adding repetitive textilepatterns and floral displays copied from collected ephemera, historical compilations of home décor and references to domestic and feminine-identified crafts. These led to burgeoning 3D installations in the studio of individual works and groupings copied from her … [Read more...] about ‘A PAINTING IS A PRACTICE’: KIRSTIN LAMB’S FLORAL REMIX AT THE TERZIAN GALLERY