As 2020 approaches, many years since “we were supposed to have flying cars” have past. Popular stories in film and literature like “1984,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Back to the Future Part II” take place in a future passed, leaving us laughing at the ridiculous technology that doesn’texist yet. But “The Running Man” and “Blade Runner” both take place in 2019 (the latter starts in November), but the planet isn’t like that either. This leaves us wondering what’s to come, since various predictions were proven incorrect by time. Enter a world unknown, and known, in “A Trace by the Future,” where 2019 meets an unnamed year, on view at UMass Lowell’s University Gallery through November 21. Washington, D.C.-based artist Jonathan Monaghan’s exhibition featuring recent work incorporates pastels and fluorescents, pop culture and technology in sculpture, video, print and … [Read more...] about AN EERIE FEELING OF FAMILIARITY: JONATHAN MONAGHAN’S FUTURISTIC VISION IN LOWELL
November/December 2019
ENGAGING THE PLANET: FRIEL AND HIRST’S HANDS-ON ART AT CHAZAN
From November 21 through December 11, the Chazan Gallery in Providence presents “Of Rock and Air,” a two-person show of artwork by Mary Anne Friel and Leslie Hirst. These artists explore intense process-laden methods of making. Recently, while visiting their respective studios in Pawtucket, each explained their current aesthetics and what they will present at the Chazan Gallery. It was informative to see both artists at the stage of transition from labor-intensive, fabric-oriented processes to making decisions about the technical aspects of presentation for the Chazan space. Hirst is a full professor of Experimental and Foundation Studies at Rhode Island School of Design, and Friel is an associate professor in Textiles at the same institution. Looking at their upcoming exhibit in overview, one sees an obvious correspondence between their sensibilities. Friel’s artwork for the … [Read more...] about ENGAGING THE PLANET: FRIEL AND HIRST’S HANDS-ON ART AT CHAZAN
A STUNNING HOMECOMING: N.C. WYETH’S MASTERFUL PORTLAND RETROSPECTIVE
Boats both rowed and sailed converge on a distinctly Maine island: a hump of rock, with some scrubs of trees but mostly barren, a simple residence located at its central, northernmost point. The sailboats anchor in the turquoise sea; the rowboats dragged up by their mates clutter the drab sand of the shore; and several indistinct figures make their way to the house surrounded by a makeshift maze of stone walls, a muted, impassive sky above. It is a crisp, solemn depiction, the island version of one of life’s few sureties — death. But the 1939, egg tempera and oil on hardboard, “Island Funeral,” is also illustrative of its artist’s range of style and emotion. Described aptly as an “ideal marriage of illustration and modern painting,” it is one of the central pieces of “N.C. Wyeth: New Perspectives,” at the Portland Museum of Art. On view through January 12, 2020, the traveling … [Read more...] about A STUNNING HOMECOMING: N.C. WYETH’S MASTERFUL PORTLAND RETROSPECTIVE
SHIPPING NEWS: PEM EXPANSION MODERNIZES MARITIME AGE
I was vacationing in Burlington, Vermont, when the Peabody Essex Museum formally opened their new wing. Always game for an opening, I flew across three states just as fall color was starting to ripen. I traveled with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation since I was wondering if this mania for expansion, which has taken so many museums by storm, had also bewitched one of my favorite museums — already, in my opinion, in full flight without needing an extra wing. I needn’t have feared. As if a portent of good fortune, I arrived thinking that the opening was over, when to my g reat joy I found that the food hadn’t even been served y et. A s I w as tired and hungry, the rest of the evening sort of disappeared into a frenzy of dipping, sipping, chewing and mumbling as I took a first look of the new facilities. Fortunately, I had made a reservation at the Clipper Ship Inn — one of … [Read more...] about SHIPPING NEWS: PEM EXPANSION MODERNIZES MARITIME AGE
TRANSCENDING BURLINGTON: EMBRACING SPIRITUALITY THROUGH CONTEMPORARY ART
In 1912, Wassily Kandinsky wrote a theoretical treatise devoted to spirituality in art, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art.” Early on in this small volume, he states: “When religion, science and morality are shaken . . . when the outer supports threaten to fall, man turns his gaze from externals in on to himself. Literature, music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt.” These words came to mind recently at the opening of “Transcendent: Spirituality in Contemporary Art,” an ambitious exhibition at Burlington City Arts (BCA) that features the work of seven internationally known artists who explore and open the viewer’s eyes to the fluid realm of what it means to embrace spirituality in our contemporary world. Shahzia Sikander, a Lahore, Pakistan-born artist, presents a large-screen video installation, titled “Disruption as … [Read more...] about TRANSCENDING BURLINGTON: EMBRACING SPIRITUALITY THROUGH CONTEMPORARY ART
A LEGACY WORTH PRESERVING: AN INVALUABLE SECOND LOOK AT JACK WOLFE
While visiting Bridgewater State University’s Wallace L. Anderson Gallery in mid-September, I discovered Jack Wolfe. His work was being featured in “The Promise of Lincoln” exhibition that ran from August 19 through October 4; upon viewing it, I was immediately intrigued and set out to learn more about this artist. I started by talking to curator Jay Block, the associate director of collections and exhibitions at Bridgewater, who told me that Jack Wolfe was once a promising and highly recognized abstract expressionist painter in the mid-1950s in New York City but, he decided to walk away from it all. He believed the art world was too money-driven and morally corrupt. Rene Ricard, in his seminal article, “The Radiant Child,” in the December 1981 issue of “Artforum” wrote, “Nobody wants to miss the Van Gogh boat. The idea of the unrecognized genius slaving away in a garret is … [Read more...] about A LEGACY WORTH PRESERVING: AN INVALUABLE SECOND LOOK AT JACK WOLFE