Welcome to our May/June 2021 issue, which I hope finds you in good health. When we started planning this issue, our team was in full self-protection mode, going out, at most, a few times a week, rarely for anything other than acquiring life essentials or visiting an exhibition if restrictions allowed. Then, as our copy and production deadlines neared, we found ourselves working around vaccine appointments and the added protection of a few extra days for any residual effects. And now, as this issue arrives in your hands, we’ve carefully returned to what we and our writers love doing most — going out and seeing art and interacting with the people who make it, sell it, promote it and purchase it. During these 14 months of solitude, I’ve especially enjoyed the online presentations by Rhode Island’s Hera Gallery and how it managed to curate and share art and images from around the … [Read more...] about Welcome May/June 2021: From Brian Goslow
Welcome
Welcome: From Brian Goslow, March/April 2021
Welcome to the 15th anniversary issue of Artscope Magazine. Pulling together a group of strangers from around New England and turning them into a working arts community is not an easy goal, but it’s one that publisher Kaveh Mojtabai set out to do back in 2006. We are here, 91 issues later, thousands of formed friendships and professional partnerships later, hopefully about to navigate our way out of the pandemic of our lifetime that upended not only plans for the near future, but many of our lives. These are challenging times, indeed; at a recent Arts Administration Association New England “Sip and Chat,” Catherine Peterson, executive director of ArtsBoston, said she feared that half of its current member organizations wouldn’t make it to the other side of the pandemic. The latest estimate on museums nationwide suggests that up to a third may not reopen their doors. Throughout the … [Read more...] about Welcome: From Brian Goslow, March/April 2021
WELCOME: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
We set out putting together the first Artscope of 2021 to serve as an introduction to as many new artists as possible through the covering of group exhibitions with the understanding and expectation that there would be government- ordered shutdowns and the lowering of capacities at those galleries and museums that were open. In doing so, we worked to confirm that the shows at these venues would have a physical as well as strong online and virtual presence so that the participating artists received the best maximum exposure possible while visitors could also have a chance to attend in-person. In the long run, we’re hopefully helping to lay the groundwork for a stronger arts community in New England and the world. We know that it isn’t going to be easy. “The old ways and attitudes in society weren’t working,” Artscope publisher Kaveh Mojtabai told me as we explored what to expect … [Read more...] about WELCOME: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Welcome: From Brian Goslow: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
One of the things we all miss the most due to the pandemic is our one-on-one meetings at gallery and museum openings, whether with old friends or someone whose work screams out getting to know this person better. With everyone missing that regular communication, it seemed fitting, as the months add up, to include a series of “visits” to find out how people, regions and the business of art was getting on. Ron Fortier talked with three South Coast artists: David Baggarly on looking after his parents while recovering from a detached retina and back surgery that has kept him from his love of, and need to, paint and worrying about his wife, Abby, who works as a nurse; Jamaican-born, wheelchair bound Roy St. Christopher Rossow, who’s been working on commissioned and exhibition-bound works while reflecting on his life;Vermont-born, Dartmouth, Massachusetts-based Stephen Remick on putting … [Read more...] about Welcome: From Brian Goslow: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
WELCOME: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
“Art may yet save the world.” Thus writes Nancy Nesvet in her wrap-up of this year’s Art Basel international art fair in Basel, Switzerland, in this issue. She’s addressing what she sees as a need for the world’s citizens — and especially its artists — to “band together to work to solve environmental and political problems if we are to survive as a people.” Much of the artwork she reports on takes on these concerns as does some of the exhibitions covered in this issue of Artscope. How those messages will be conveyed remains to be seen. We work hard in giving a voice to artists, addressing their societal concerns through their artwork and share them to create public participation. That also means constantly opening the ways we get those messages out to you. The loss of traditional media publications and journalism outlets available for artists and art organizations and … [Read more...] about WELCOME: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
WELCOME: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
As we were putting the final touches on this issue, our 80th, our publisher, Kaveh Mojtabai, told me, “The fashion work on our cover harkens back to an era of family, honor and Sufi creed (compassion, love, patience and peace with all religions and people) to keep unity within tribes and clans for the betterment of future generations. It reminds me of one the most popular shows in the world on Netflix, Diriliş — or ‘Resurrection’ in Turkish, taking place in the 13th century during the founding of the Ottoman Empire.” The storyline follows a nomadic Kayı tribe caught “in the designs of a violent world that has lost its way,” with different tribes pitted against one another and innocent villagers being plundered in the process. “Eventually, the tribe can settle and create a new era based on its cultural humanitarian values.” It doesn’t sound too different from how today’s arts … [Read more...] about WELCOME: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW