Welcome Brian Goslow Nearly 50 years ago, I attended my first art exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum. At the age of 12, I had already become quite fond of neon through its use in our many dining cars and a few captivating buildings that always called out in the night. That first show, “Light and Motion,” introduced me to a new way of seeing light – and art – that would grow over the years and lead me to ...

by Marta Pauer-Tursi The fourth biennial exhibition at Helen Day Art Center features the works of five MFA degree students from the Northeast. This year, more than 150 applicants’ works were considered for this juried exhibition. Four of the artists are women working in various mediums including painting, photography and sculpture. Two are from the Middle East, and the three Americans are from the West Coast, the South and New England. The majority of them are keenly aware of the ...

by Marguerite Serkin A regional exhibit of juried works may suggest a circumspect, homogenous collection. Such is far from the case in the collection on view through the Biennial Regional Juror’s Choice Exhibition at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery in Keene. Drawing upon a large pool of local talent, the myriad pieces included in the exhibition cross multiple media, and reflect studied, deliberate applications that are both refreshingly current and historically germane. Chosen from over 100 submissions, only works originating within ...

by Brian Goslow Nearly 50 years ago, the Worcester Art Museum hosted “Light and Motion,” a groundbreaking exhibition in which the participating “new kineticists” turned to “light and movement to produce a new sensibility.” This summer, just as those artists used the latest “electrical elements, lenses, Polaroid filters … and other non-traditional media” to modernize its viewers’ senses, Shih Chieh Huang’s “Reusable Universes” reinvents the possibilities of what a gallery space — and museum experience — can be. It only ...

by Laura Shabott “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.“ — Henry David Thoreau Budd Hopkins (1931-2011) was a highly complex, remarkable artist. His unique vision, a melding of abstract expressionism and hardedge abstraction, will be on view in two upcoming shows at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, curated by daughter Grace Hopkins, ...

by Greg Morell The studio of Portsmouth artist Michael Stasiuk is a wonder world of creative imagination where obscure found objects are manipulated, jointed, glued and crafted into magical, animated, anthropomorphic spirits of fancy. Working with very simple tools — a drill, a small band saw, a series of hand tools — his wizardry of inventive fabrication conjures a panoply of whimsical characters and kooky creatures. His work is lighthearted, clever, amusing and a visual delight to both art aficionados ...

by James Foritano I have to admit that my awakening to literature didn’t arrive through the genius of Theodor Seuss Geisel — known the world over by his pen name Dr. Seuss — but through the “Dick and Jane” elementary school reading series, a post-World War II depiction of the traditional two parents, two children and their beloved dog, “Spot.” A series that remained firmly staid, suburban and tame — in both word and picture. Fortunately, I fell in love ...

by Flavia Cigliano Walking into the Three Stones Gallery on a late spring afternoon in the village of West Concord was a pleasure. Full of light and airy, with a high ceiling, the space provided excellent viewing for the artwork on display. Artist/owner Jennifer M. Johnston established the gallery three years ago with the goal of focusing on regional artists. “It was really good timing. Everything came together. A sparkling vitality has infused the center of West Concord,” Johnston said. ...

by Suzanne Volmer “Art for Survival,” a portrait exhibition of paintings by Daniel Maffia, opens on August 19 at Harmon Gallery in Wellfleet. The artist makes narratives that rely on appropriation or remix as a method for sourcing content. He includes recognizable images from pop culture and film noir, as well as familiar art historical references reframed or re-contextualized to define the character of the present. All of Maffia’s paintings at Harmon Gallery, which were painted over the last two ...

by Beth Neville Ellen Schiffman pushes the limits of Fiber Art in her “52 Box Project” solo exhibit at the Fuller Craft Museum. Moving away from cotton, wool, linen, felt and synthetic fiber, she works with unorthodox materials. Reaching a “milestone” birthday (age not revealed), Schiffman made a pledge to herself that she would make a new fiber installation each week for a year, sort of a shortened version of Julie Powell’s “365 days” take on Julia Child. All of ...

by J. Fatima Martins In News & Views, the Mystic Museum of Art’s (MMoA) newsletter, Dawn E. Salerno, MMoA’s deputy director for public engagement and operations, asks in her “Art Education and National Welfare” essay, “Can a museum teach empathy or inspire good citizenship?” She goes on to reference a study that found that “even a single museum experience improved a student’s empathy for people who lived in a different time and place.” Salerno’s essay highlights a fundamental element of ...

by Laura Shabott When Artscope’s publisher Kaveh Mojtabai and managing editor Brian Goslow asked me to do a gallery crawl in the arts colony of Provincetown, I was daunted by the sheer quantity and quality of art available on the Outer Cape in the towns of Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown. What possible parameters could I use when there are hundreds of artists worth noting? First, I wanted to create a walking experience so art lovers could jump on the ferry ...

by Suzanne Volmer “The Power of Paper,” at Gallery 4 at Historic Tiverton Four Corners through July 30, includes works on paper created by 12 artists. Conceived by Chas. Hickey in collaboration with Elaine Hill and Alix Campbell, this exhibition is weighted toward small and mid-range artworks. It tests the waters on this year’s ease of purchase, and is meant to encourage experimentation among collectors who might obsess over that one big purchase. The more daring big-ticket item, in the ...

by Beth Neville Among contemporary young artists, it is unusual to find someone in full control of her medium, with the emotional maturity and imagination to produce art that is both decorative and deeply emotional. This is even more unusual in the burgeoning field of American crafts over the past 50 years. Amber Cowan is such an artist. Her art, crafted glass, goes beyond the inherent decorative beauty of translucent and opalescent glass to form sculptures with significant symbolic content. ...

by Linda Chestney So often we are compelled to leave home. The further the better, right? Yet there remains in our cultural DNA a pair that brings us back home. According to T.S. Elliott, “…and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” A popular saying states that: “Life takes you to unexpected places, love brings you home.” Indeed. That was seascape artist Karen Blackwood’s experience. Blackwood, ...

by Elayne Clift Johnny Swing was fortunate enough to have a mother who was an artist. She inspired and encouraged his interest in welding which led to him sculpting metal into functional art, something he said he knew he wanted to do from the age of three. By the time he was 13, he was comfortable with his medium both as a welder and a budding architectural artist. His first gallery show took place just after he graduated from Skidmore ...

by Lisa Mikulski Art and psychology have long been looking at one another in an attempt to extend our understanding of human choices, experiences and the perception of events in the world in which we live. Although art psychology tends to examine the processes and motives of an artist’s self-expression, the artist can turn the tables and delve into the realm of psychological sciences to portray ideas from the past as well as a possible future. These are two very ...

by Jamie Thompson At the Portland Museum of Art (PMA), this summer is all about sculpture. On July 7, the museum will debut its new David E. Shaw and Family Sculpture Park in the Joan B. Burns Garden at a grand opening event. The sculpture park unveiling coincides with “A New American Sculpture, 1914-1945: Lachaise, Laurent, Nadelman and Zorach,” a groundbreaking exhibition of approximately 60 sculptures and preparatory drawings by four major figures of modernism. The four European-born artists came ...

by Nancy Nesvet There once was a small city at the crossroads of three countries — Switzer- land, Germany and France — that became the epicenter of the global art market. Coming from across the world, artists, gallerists, buyers and art lovers co-exist for a week in a quest for the perfect art piece; the willing buyer; or the fame to advance or initiate an art career, a fortune or a collection. Art Basel’s fame and fortune can only be ...

by Suzanne Volmer Documenta is the art world’s version of a G-8 Summit. This year, the iteration of Documenta 14 has coincided with the Basel Art Fair and Venice Biennale and differs from the other venues mentioned because it is not of a commercial context. It is a think tank that began in Kassel, Germany in 1955 and occurs every five years as a curatorial platform of experimentation and trendsetting exhibition planning. Curators prime themselves to respond to the ideas ...

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Bevan Weissman at Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville. I wanted to learn more about maker- spaces in general and specifically to find out about Bevan’s current projects with his colleagues at New American Public Art. Weissman made the point that makerspaces are ideal workshops for making public art. There are no walls, and that leads to a shared flow of ideas. The space is permeable, and most importantly, the members share resources. In contrast, ...

by Eric Taubert From the beating heart of York Village, one of the first permanent settlements in Maine, quiet Lindsay Road wends down a scenic half-mile toward the York River. It is on the banks of this landmark tidal stream where art collectors with a bent for exploration and adventurous discovery will be richly rewarded with a very welcome surprise. The George Marshall Store Gallery immediately commands your attention as you turn the corner and begin traveling parallel with the ...

by Tom Soboleski Eye-catching sculpture allures, causing us to pause, linger, and dither as we contemplate what it’s trying to say to us. It can be transformative, with both the object and its environs enhanced by its juxtaposition to its surroundings. Imagine strolling through an array of landscape sculptures blended seamlessly onto bucolic grounds flanked by a placid river, and you just may be transformed. The venue is the “Summer Sculpture Showcase” on Gil Boro’s Sculpture Grounds in Old Lyme, ...