FINDING CONNECTIONS AT LESLEY Japanese artist Rinko Kawauchi feels connections. Connections to and between the personal and the universal. Connections between heaven and earth. Ying and Yang. The living and the dead. In her upcoming exhibit, “Ametsuchi,” at Lesley University, Kawauchi’s series of large-scale photography pulls together and illuminates images of these connec- tions. The night sky over Tokyo, images of people who seem to be consumed by their landscape, and the controlled agricultural burnings (yakihata) of farmland figure prominently in her work. Kawauchi’s vision shows us the cycles of renewal and cultiva- tion, the infinity of the universe, and the importance of ritual. Ametsuchi, translated to mean “Song of the Universe,” and taken from the ancient Japanese characters meaning “heaven and earth,” is from one of the oldest pangrams in Japanese. Lisa Mikulski … [Read more...] about Song of the Universe

MIA BROWNELL MIXES ART AND SCIENCE AT HOUSATONIC In the still-life paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, memento mori motifs — “remember you will die” — often appear. The works might portray a sumptuous table laden “with luscious fruits, gleaming oysters, wine poured into thin crystal; it may also be seen to display a melon split and rotting, scavenging mice, invading insects — all rendered with delicate precision,” Carolyn Korsmeyer, a professor of philosophy at SUNY-Buffalo, has written. “Spilled cups, broken lute strings, even the occasional grinning skull might be included in the scene to bring to mind the transience of human life in the midst of the sensory enjoyments of the table.” In “Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting” — a traveling exhibition of approximately 30 works that will make its final stop at the Housatonic Museum this fall, Southern Connecticut State … [Read more...] about Delightful, Delicious, and Disgusting

EXPLORING THAT HARD-TO-DEFINE PLACE Three very different artists bring artwork of great power and strangeness to the three exhibition spaces at AVA Gallery as they explore questions of the body, narrative and that hard-to-define place between realism and abstrac- tion. I was drawn to this group of shows because of that hard-to-define place, through which I travel in my own work. AVA Gallery and Art Center is a non-profit space offering exhibitions, classes and artists’ studios. AVA’s physical structure, with three separate galleries inside one large exhibition space, is ideal for thematically juxtaposing artists like this. “Slow Transformations through Matter,” in the combined Rebecca Lawrence Gallery Entry and Clifford B. West Gallery, includes both paintings and three-dimensional mixed media work by Louise Glass of Piermont, New Hampshire. Her imagery references the forms of … [Read more...] about Between Realism and Abstraction

SCULPTURE EMBRACES HORTICULTURE A trend among stately mansions from the past — many of which are now museum-like non-profit institutions — is the idea of boosting tourist interest through the presentation of site-sensitive art. Allison Newsome is a defining force in developing this type of outreach into genuinely interesting events. Her sophisticated perspective is very much in evidence with “Sculpture Embraces Horticulture,” a group show of seven artists (including herself) organized for the Blithewold Mansion, Gardens and Arboretum in Bristol, Rhode Island, on view through October 31. This outdoor sculpture exhibition is a cross- pollination highlight in Blithewold’s imaginative stewardship and features quality contemporary art as a vehicle of insight and enrichment. With this show, Newsome creates an outdoor exhibit that shares artworks interactive with nature. Within her … [Read more...] about Art and Nature Connect at Blithewold

MURRAY EXPLORES NEW DIMENSIONS Against a scratched and striated, formless blushed blue backdrop, a portal gapes. Bubbles emanate from its black depths, and cascading out of it — yet still intricately linked with it — is a mass of both defined and ghostly shapes, shifting, morphing, blending into one another. Is it the inner landscape of the mind? Alien? Celestial? A depth of the sea or the core of the earth never plumbed? Entitled “Out of the Abyss Came Sweet- ness,” this work of watercolor and gouache is a prime example of artist Linda Murray’s rich, flowing experiential and surrealistic style that distorts and manipulates reality, dimension, the mind and consciousness A lifelong resident of the Kennebec River Valley, Murray — along with several other local artists — currently displays her work at The Sharpe Gallery in Kennebunk’s lower village. Taryn Plumb … [Read more...] about Out of the Abyss at The Sharpe Gallery

NORTH BENNINGTON IS TRANSFORMED INTO AN OUTDOOR SCULPTURE PARK “We’re going on an art hunt — you can model with the sculptures and I’ll send the pictures to the editor!” is how I enticed the kids away from video games to see this exhibition. It worked! After arriving in North Bennington, Vermont and engaging in a fact-finding session of sculpture location and photo documentation, I met up with the very straightforward and welcoming sculptor and exhibition organizer Joe Chirchirillo. Later, when I asked my son what was most interesting about the exhibition he said, “I liked pretending the giant lobster was going to eat me.” Engaging in dramatic play with “Coppa Lobsta,” a 12-foot-long, carved, reclaimed-wood-and-copper construction by Washington, D.C.-based wildlife sculptor Charles Bergen is how my son finds art’s relevance. Many other sculptures were transformed into … [Read more...] about Labor of Love