‘Modern technology has made it possible for us to view events originating anywhere in the world simultaneous to their occurrence. Unlike pre-satellite days when a population nervously awaited word from a catastrophe or war zone, we now view world events as easily as a television mini-series. Media packaging leaves the two resembling one another, with the large concentration of information thrown upon us, leaving us temporarily entertained, but unable to fully evaluate and understand what we have viewed.’ I wrote ...

Artists are often celebrated for their ability to bring beauty and hope into our lives, providing refuge at times of turmoil. But artists can also bring us to confront painful truths; they can lift up voices and stories that are marginalized, ignored or repressed. At this moment, when thousands are marching in the streets to protest racial, economic and environmental injustices, how can artists provide the inspiration and perhaps even tools for social change? Cedric “Vise1” Douglas is a Boston ...

Following the unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain and countless other Black and Brown bodies due to police violence and brutality, national outrage has sparked uprisings in cities across the country. People from all walks of life have poured out of their homes in leadership and in allyship — during a global pandemic — to join liberation movements for Black lives. Correspondingly, street artists have taken to boarded-up panels and empty storefronts to do what ...

Caroline Rufo’s installation, “Intervisible,” a critique of historical redlining practices targeting Black homeowners around Boston, opened in SOWA in early March. Days later, the pandemic shuttered the Bromfield Gallery. Since its reopening in mid-June to an America convulsed by protests over George Floyd’s killing, Rufo’s interrogation of white complacency and governmental complicity in systemic racism could not be more timely. “Intervisible”is a work of acknowledgment and atonement. Visitors enter a fluttering, papery maze of lacy floor-to- ceiling curtains bounded by ...

Never has protest been more relevant than today. Whether protesting for human rights, the protection of our planetary home, equal justice for all, or to better the lives of children, we are witnessing a social movement in our country and abroad which gains momentum daily. In his newly-released book, “Our Voices, Our Streets: American Protests 2001-2011,” photographer Kevin Bubriski has created a collection of images spanning adecade of American life, beginning with the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, ...

Words and visual imagery are deeply entwined in Claudia Ruiz Gustafson’s solo exhibition, “Historias de Tierra y Mar: Stories of Land and Sea,” at the Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge. Words and photos are dependent on each other and the mix reveals a great deal about Ruiz Gustafson’s life. Born in Peru, she moved to the United States in her 20s, the only member of her family to do so. The exhibit is an intimate look at the life and ...

“Nothing that you plan is going to work out. Everything is going to be totally different than the way you expected. And things will constantly challenge you. Wherever you look the world is not as solid it seems to be.” — Spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle. For 16 years, art lovers and the culturally curious of the South Coast towns of Westport and Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Tiverton and LittleCompton, Rhode Island, have made their annual pilgrimage visit to the ...

The last time I saw Anton “Napi” Van Dereck, a passionate collector of paintings and white line woodblock prints from the arts colony of Provincetown, we were debating the validity of abstract art. He said, “I understand it, of course, but I don’t like it. I like art that tells a story.” Napi’s death this past year on Christmas Day, at 89 years of age, marks the end of an era and is sad. It is poignant and fitting that ...

“You are more than your sexuality, your skin color, your tax bracket, your mortgage, your 501c — whatever you call it. You are your mind. Your mind is vast; it has more windows in it then Downton Abbey. So why not open a few? Do something so bizarre that people start questioning YOUR sanity. And, POOF: you’re an artist.” — from Ryan Landry’s “Escape the ‘Cage of Normalcy’: Be more” TEDxProvincetown, September 14, 2019. There are many ways that you ...

Alnoba, a sculpture garden and leadership training organization in Kensington, New Hampshire, touches lives on many levels. Designed as a facility for non-profit leadership training, it also embraces conservation sustainability, supports health and wellness by promoting local farms and enfolds it all in an art sculpture garden often trumpeting social justice themes. A fascinating array of internationally eclectic artists’ works are displayed — including pieces by Andy Goldsworthy of Scotland, Pablo Atchugarry of Uruguay, Ernesto Neto of Brazil and South ...

Just over a decade ago, with the financial collapse of 2008, the first wave of Millennial college graduates were thrown into economic uncertainty. For many, the landscape was a repudiation of the tentative “deal” that had been made between them and American society at large: get yourself a college degree — become credentialed — and you will have economic stability. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, a second economic fallout has begun, coinciding with the tail end of the ...

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 113 Confederate memorials have been removed as of June 2020, but as of this writing, over 1700 remain. Recent removal and destruction of statues worldwide has resulted from public anger at the presence of statues of colonialist and racist individuals, and the racist incidents, hate crimes, murders and demonstrations encouraged by these portrayals. After Charleston, South Carolina’s mass church shooting in 2015, former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, with the unanimous affirmative vote of ...

Midmarch Arts Press publisher Cynthia Navaretta recently passed away at 97 in New York after a remarkable career of cultural imprint during which she published numerous books championing the creative perspectives of artists and “Women Artists News,” a galvanizing magazine that provided a forum for women artists. She also made a huge impact as a founding member of “Artists Talk on Art,” the longest running in-person art panel discussion series in New York. I met Navaretta at a College Art ...

Artscope’s publisher, Kaveh Mojtabai and I had expected to be at Art Basel, for which Artscope had accepted the invitation to mount its own booth in the Magazine Sector, in June 2020. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on travel and Switzerland’s 1000-person limit at gatherings, Art Basel initially rescheduled the event for September 2020, but as that date approached, it became necessary to cancel the fair in Switzerland and adopt a virtual format with participating galleries and artists showing their work ...