On a recent visit to the sites of ancient cave drawings in France, Jenn Houle couldn’t help but be awed and humbled by their sheer majesty and history — but what most struck her, she said, was the “drive and the earnestness” of their prehistoric creators. In some cases, the “artists” would have had to scale rock walls to heights of 25 feet or more; in other instances, they would have been required to squeeze through a 3-foot-wide opening and then belly-crawl a few hundred feet to get to their “canvas.” “And nobody knows why,” Houle mused. “It shows our very early drive to record the world around us and to leave a record behind.” Houle is fascinated by this eternal struggle of sentient beings to try to make sense of the world and their place in it (including her own); she explores this motif in her whimsically named exhibit, “Meteors are Space Eggs,” on view September 16 to … [Read more...] about START MAKING SENSE: HOULE QUESTIONS SPACE AND PLACE
September/October 2018
PARTICIPATORY GUESSING GAME: UNTOLD STORIES AT FOUNTAIN STREET
The immediate condition and activity conveyed within the pictures made by painters Anita Loomis and Alexandra Rozenman is extrapolation. As the title of their current exhibition, “Untold Stories,” directly tells us, the paintings allow and welcome conjecture. The artists have created environments that focus the viewer’s attention towards inference, encouraging the seer to intellectually step into and become part of vague spaces and curious scenes — to participate in a surreal guessing game. For the viewer, the stories within the compositions are open-ended and puzzling, being directed in possibility by the depicted visual objects and glimpses of human form. We approach these compositions by asking what’s going on. Some paintings depict relatable imagery such as domestic interiors, landscapes and active scenes, while others are expressive and fantastical with abstracted and speculative … [Read more...] about PARTICIPATORY GUESSING GAME: UNTOLD STORIES AT FOUNTAIN STREET
ROOM TO BREATHE: MALIK IN PROVIDENCE
Saberah Malik is a contemporary process artist deeply connected to the potential and integrity of her materials. She has a reputation of experimentation as a maker of emotive fabric sculptures. This autumn, the artist exhibits textile projects influenced by her Muslim and Pakistani-American background at Atrium Gallery and AS220’s Project Space in Providence, Rhode Island. The Atrium Gallery show, which runs from September 22 through November 10, exhibits Malik’s work in a group context juried by Rhode Island School of Design Museum Director John Smith. The exhibition has been organized by More than My Religion to counter today’s climate of backlash against Muslims. As one of many artists invited to participate, Malik said she was honored to have been selected and noted, “I am very committed to the effort, philosophy and drive behind this series [of exhibitions].” The reception for … [Read more...] about ROOM TO BREATHE: MALIK IN PROVIDENCE
OUT AND ABOUT IN CT: WAA SCULPTURE WALK
Nestled within the hills and dales of northwest Connecticut lies a world-class sculpture exhibit that envelops you into its bucolic setting. With pieces as diverse as a “giant tulip” that could have been transplanted from another planet to neoclassical nudes, the show presents bronze and marble figures as well as abstract, kinetic, whimsical, industrialized and thought-provoking works in stone, resin, glass and metal. Officially titled the WAA (Washington Art Association) Sculpture Walk, the exhibit is located in Washington Depot, first settled in 1734 and traversed several times by George Washington. Anchored by the town hall and central plaza, the show is the result of the ambitious mission of town leaders to stimulate people to explore the nooks and crannies of the village “and look at it from a different perspective,” says co-curator Barbara Talbot. Sixty-three sculptures by more … [Read more...] about OUT AND ABOUT IN CT: WAA SCULPTURE WALK
SEEING IS BELIEVING: DODD AT OGUNQUIT
Technology says that an airbrush refines a painting. Tradition says it’s a paintbrush. Smart artists know that art is delivered by the eyes, which ignite the senses. Open your eyes at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, offering both natural and artist-created art. At times, you can’t see the boundaries of the two. Place and imagination are blended to the point of overload The entrance to this museum, set above the Atlantic Ocean on ledges of outcropping land, takes your breath away as you experience the panoramic view of crashing waves and distant vistas of Downeast Maine through its back-window wall. Just spectacular. And in fact, this is the space — the sculpture gallery — where the current exhibition, “Lois Dodd: Drawings and Paintings,” is showcased. A much-loved and highly celebrated artist of 91 years, Dodd was a pioneer artist beginning back in the 1950s. She congregated … [Read more...] about SEEING IS BELIEVING: DODD AT OGUNQUIT
A BOLD ARTISTIC VOICE: SHABOTT AT FOUR ELEVEN
Laura Shabott is not only an artist who has undergone what she calls “circuitous” life processes to find herself back at painting, drawing and figurative art, she is also, undoubtedly, an intuitive mark maker, a conduit for a glimmering network of centuries of artistic tradition in Provincetown and a person who greets each day boldly using her artistic voice. She creates directly from life, transmuting with a fearless hand all that she’s absorbed, cutting visual planes with lucid intent. Bearing the art colony’s lineage in lightening strokes, her gestural paintings and drawings in gouache, charcoal and oil refresh what one may or may not know of the rich, abstract expressionist tradition on the Cape Cod peninsula. Shabott is constantly referencing a greater legacy: Hans Hofmann, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell. These artists, who worked and lived where she works and lives, are … [Read more...] about A BOLD ARTISTIC VOICE: SHABOTT AT FOUR ELEVEN