Welcome to the summer issue we didn’t know we’d have. As we began planning this issue in mid-May, most of us expected that it wouldn’t be till August, at the earliest, that the region would be reopened at full capacity. Then, as Memorial Day Weekend neared, states unexpectedly announced a return to “normalcy” and suddenly we found ourselves carefully returning to our favorite galleries, museums and restaurants. With this issue, we hope we’ll give you a number of strong and ...

It’s another First Friday, 6 p.m., and the clouds are finally lifting to liberate the sinking sun’s pale gleams. Since Covid arrived, I’ve rarely visited SoWa except briefly and alone. Now, on June 4, 2021, I’m fully vaccinated and ready to risk a crowd in Boston’s South End. Clad in sneakers and studio jeans, I trail a stylishly shod, light-skinned woman in long black culottes and a three-quarter-sleeve charcoal silk jacket down the steps into Beacon Gallery. Two women holding ...

Change is coming. Some is already here as people, newly vaccinated, explore the world again, get comfortable in their own skin and long to interact. I spoke recently with gallerist Arlette Kayafas about her vision moving forward because of her years of perspective given that hers is among the longest continuously running galleries on Harrison Avenue at Thayer Street in Boston’s SoWa Art + Design District. Its galleries are places to enjoy art without an admission fee and to learn ...

At the entrance to the exhibition space devoted to “Uncommon Threads: The Works of Ruth E. Carter,” a clip plays on a continuous loop. It features the Springfield, Massachusetts-born costume designer accepting the 2019 Academy Award for Best Costume Design for “Black Panther,” the first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to star a Black lead, the late Chadwick Boseman. The thrice Academy Award nominated Carter —previously for Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” in 1992 and Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” in 1997 ...

“Essence” at 13FOREST Gallery in Arlington brings together 15 Boston-area artists in celebration of Juneteenth. Being the first year that Juneteenth is officially recognized on both state and federal levels, the show sends an especially powerful message about diversity to the wider art community. Curated by artist Cedric “Vise1” Douglas, “Essence” celebrates the joy, spirit and resilience of the Black community while simultaneously honoring the many Black artists who live and work here. (To read more, pick up a copy ...

I confess that I am a huge fan of Richard Neal. His powerful and provocative works always draw me into their theatrical mystery. (Indeed, I’d like to create a new label for his work: dynamic existential constructionist art! Art Deca.) The “Jones House” exhibit at Miller White Gallery shows Neal’s quintessential uniqueness. From constructed pieces, to pieces about construction, moderately abstract to discernibly figural, the work uses many means and methods. (To read more, pick up a copy of our ...

Works by Charles Hawthorne (1872-1930), Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), Edward Hopper (1882-1967), and artists taught and inspired by them, are on exhibit at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum through August 29. Curated by Christine McCarthy, the show pulls from the museum’s collection. She said “It has always been a passion of mine to showcase PAAM’s permanent collection... The holdings of local and regional art are extensive and dynamic, comprising 4,000 works by over eight hundred 20th Century and contemporary artists ...

Artist Ruben Natal-San Miguel is a September 11 survivor. He escaped from the North Tower while working as a financial controller. Like it was for millions of New Yorkers, that day was a turning point for Miguel, who began photographing portraits afterwards, as if to soothe a collective memory or freeze moments in time that once were beautiful. Fast-forward 20 years, and Ruben is now a prolific photographer — and still based in New York City. “Some things you just ...

Marilyn Kalish, the local and internationally recognized, Massachusetts-based contemporary artist, was born into a family of visual artists. She herself has always been creating, sketching and watching the world through the keen eyes of a creative. It was during her childhood, in her grandfather’s studio in particular, where she received the bulk of her education. Her grandfather was an accomplished artist both in his craft and his career. She told me over the phone — I, sitting on a couch ...

When I think of scale in art, Monet’s water lilies or Cristo and Jeanne-Claude’s environmental installations spring to mind. While large-scale works immerse us, small-scale works ask us to squint up close to explore every detail. The 13th Biennial Miniature Print International Exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking requires just this. Curated by Christina Weyl, author of “The Women of Atelier 17: Modernist Printmaking in Midcentury New York,” this exhibition features 128 miniature prints generally measuring two-by-two inches, none ...

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain.” — C.S. Lewis, Oxford scholar, theologian and author of many books, including “The Chronicles of Narnia.” We’re all tired of the intro to articles, news releases, etc., that begin with, “In this unprecedented time as we cope with Covid...” We’ve lived with it for a year and a half. Everyone — worldwide — has been affected. Many with tragic results. Loss of health. Loss of loved ones. Loss ...

It’s summer in the Berkshires, and after a year of isolation, crisis and uncertainty, all are looking forward to what new opportunities for connection and celebration summer 2021 will bring. Those in the art world who made it through closures and Covid protocols have had no time to spare patting themselves on the back nor reveling in their hard work and good fortune. Instead they’ve been busy curating, creating and organizing shows for all of us art-lovers to enjoy. For ...

We often think of plastic as a nuisance, a pollutant or as an unnecessary evil. Plastic is everywhere, introduced to us the moment we’re born. Necessary and overused, contradictory and highly politicized, plastic has been demonized in American culture for the environmental impact it can have when improperly used and discarded of — which is, unfortunately, too often what happens. The ability to render the demonized into something adorable is a kind of power all on its own. Artist Michelle ...

Even before one arrives at Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in Enosburg, the Vermont landscape of lush curving hills, verdant canopies of maple, aspen and wild cherry trees and the scent of a passing summer shower awaken the senses to an intense connection with the environment. Then, another turn of the road, and a colorful steel structure becomes visible, emerging from the hill, announcing itself and inviting the visitor to enter the realm — a 45-acre expanse that is home to ...

The scale of the Amazon Rainforest is mind boggling on many levels, from its two million square mile circumference to its extraordinarily rich plant and animal life. Kate Dzikiewicz, who has put her curatorial hat on for this far-reaching exhibition at the Bruce Museum, zeros in on “many of the largest, the most dangerous, most beautiful, and most delicate plants and animals known to humankind.” (To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Find a pick-up location ...

For Americans of European descent, the deep dive to understand the First Peoples of the Americas demands a deeper sense of history and time than we live with day-to-day. Jeffrey Gibson’s hollow, 21-foot-high ziggurat, encamped for the year on a grassy plain below the castle at the deCordova Museum, is here to acquaint us with our ignorance. A nearby sign pronounces a truth dating from 1492: “You are Standing on Native Land.” Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of ...

Traditionally, the Cambridge Art Association’s annual Emerging Artists Exhibition is an invaluable way for new artists to introduce themselves to the Greater Boston art community and for galleries and collectors to see what new and innovative work is being created by New England-based emerging artists of all ages. This year’s exhibition was juried by painter Erika b Hess, creator of the “I Like Your Work” podcast, now in its third season, that is dedicated to “supporting artists, creating community and ...

Erin Corrales-Diaz, curator of the “The Iconic Jersey: Baseball x Fashion” exhibition now on view at the Worcester Art Museum, grew up outside of Seattle, Washington, where her father would bring her to watch the Seattle Mariners baseball team during the days of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Edgar Martinez. While her passion for the sport declined over the years (“I’m now a fair-weather fan,” she admitted), it was reignited when she began her search for materials for this show which ...

A woman in a torn gauze dress crouches at center, holding an axe. Around her, the room is a clutter of objects: A flock of birds flying out of a hole in the floor and roosting on the limbs of a tree emerging from the colorful fleur de lis wallpaper; a tiny rocking horse; a rabbit; a birdcage; an overturned chair; a hornet’s nest; candles, tattered books with broken bindings, animal horns, clumps of dug-up roots. Dorothy O’Connor’s photograph “Passage” ...