
Article Excerpts
WELCOME July/August 2022: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Welcome to our 99th issue! We hope you’ll find the stories within encourage you to take to the roads of New England to see some of the exhibitions featured inside and get a better understanding of the artists and reasoning behind the work they’ve created. Noting that “there has always been a strong thread connecting the arts and social justice,” Marjorie Kaye takes an in-depth look at exhibitions at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Williams College Museum of Art and The ...A TIMELY CALL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: ROCKWELL, WILLIAMS & CLARK SHOWS CELEBRATE IDENTITY
There has always been a strong thread connecting the arts and social justice. From satire via the political cartoon to the enigmatic works that expose the human condition, the tradition of awareness through visual means has always been a strong branch of art history. It is no surprise, then, in these extremely volatile times, that volumes of current exhibitions are focused on the experience of racial injustice in this country. Several Berkshire museums are a vortex of visual information this ...LONG VIEW IMAGE MAKERS: “A SACRED JOURNEY, NOT A STOPOVER, OF VISIONING”
Following the opening of his ‘I Am As I Am — A Man’ retrospective, which closes on July 24 at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, an inventive mixed media artist and founding member of AfriCOBRA, began curating “THE LONG VIEW: WHAT DO YOU SEE (DO YOU SEE ME!),” a new exhibition at the Bromfield Gallery featuring five prominent African- American artists from Boston. In his curator’s statement, Jones-Henderson writes, “I regard a ‘LONG VIEW’ as a space where ...AN ABOVE AVERAGE SUCCESS RATE: TRIENNIAL OF CHANGE AT DECORDOVA & FRUITLANDS
Switching their usual Biennial presentation gears due to pandemic impediments, the curators at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts decided instead to develop “New England Triennial 2022.” The result, on view through September 11, is a dual exhibition created in participation with Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. These venues are under the umbrella of the Trustees of Reservations. According to deCordova Chief Curator Sarah Montross, they had been looking to partner on something and the Triennial was that ...STAYING TRUE TO ITS VISION: THE SHELBURNE CELEBRATES ITS 75TH ANNIVERSARY
Having been a regular visitor to the Shelburne Museum since the mid-1980s, it did not surprise me that on its 75th anniversary, the Museum’s focus show would be one called “Eyesight and Insight: Lens on American Art.” Over the years, the Museum has stayed true to the founder Electra Havemeyer Webb’s vision and at the same time adapted that vision to the rapidly changing world that diversity, technology and social/political interaction have brought to the art world. “Eyesight and Insight,” curated ...DRAMATIC AND HAUNTING: BERT YARBOROUGH’S BOLD PAINTINGS AT BERTA WALKER
Bert Yarborough’s “Ecologies,” a solo exhibition at Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown, are a set of bold manifestations of the internal landscape of the mind and soul through abstract and figurative renditions of the ritualized external natural world. He calls it “Ecologies” because “gathered together, the work creates that type of physical environment.” The paintings are dramatic and haunting. Gallery owner, Berta Walker said, as we sat in Yarborough’s warehouse studio in Truro, covered with art from table to wall, ...PAAM’S TASTEFUL COUNTERBALANCE: ZEHRA KHAN SOLO SHOW COMPLIMENTS DE GROOT COLLECTION
The natural world is fully celebrated in two glorious shows at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) this summer. “Art of the Garden: Selections from the Pat and Nanno de Groot Collection” are on view through July 24. “Your Everyday Myths,” a solo exhibition by Zehra Khan, runs through August 28, with a public reception on July 22. “Art of the Garden,” curated by PAAM CEO Christine McCarthy, centers on the work of Dutch-born Nanno de Groot (1913-1963). He ...DE ANGELIS; EXPLICIT IMAGERY: THE BODY IS FAIR GAME AT GARY MAROTTA FINE ART
This summer, Gary Marotta Fine Art will show four exhibitions that bring together vastly different worlds under one roof. The artwork of Cara De Angelis, which explores attention and sexual desire in the internet age; the photographs of Milton H. Greene, who captured the life of Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s; paintings by Laura Klimenchenko, abstract and ethereal works in oil and acrylic; and photography by Ruben Natal-San Miguel. Opening first is De Angelis and her study of X-rated human ...A DAY OF UNIQUE CREATIVITY: PORTLAND FINE CRAFT SHOW BELONGS ON YOUR CALENDAR
It’s summer time! Time to toss starfish back in the water. Take a backroads bike ride. Go on an ice cream tour. And check out the amazing craft fairs around New England. There’s one you don’t want to miss — in Portland, Maine. It’s only one day, so you must plan on it. On Saturday, August 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine), drop in on the annual Portland Fine Craft Show in the Free Street Parking ...GOOD VIBES, UNAPOLOGETIC LOVE: EVERSLEY & FRIENDS INSPIRE AT HOPKINTON ARTS
Can making art or looking at art help us to better understand our fears, challenges and have an impact on life choices? This summer, the Jamaal Eversley-curated “Eversley & Friends: Bold & Beautiful” allows us to understand the role of the arts in healing processes. As a young boy, Eversley was criticized for not coloring inside the lines. As a young adult, he became a multidisciplinary artist. His mission is to inspire others, spread love and boost people’s self-esteem. Eversley’s ...A BOLD EXAMPLE: BELLFORGE ARTS CENTER AIMS TO BE A NATIONAL MODEL
The Bellforge Arts Center, a legacy of the past, a vision of the present, an omen for the future: “If You Build It, They Will Come.” The Cultural Alliance of Medfield (CAM) embarked on a challenging and exciting journey, using the arts as the main vehicle for this ambitious project. The results will change the landscapes of the entire Medfield community, the MetroWest Area, and beyond. Furthermore, it will serve as a national model for community building and economic prosperity ...DRAWN TO WATER: NEW BEDFORD, SOUTH COAST ARTISTS WELCOME VISITORS
The South Coast has a number of self-guided studio tour options to punctuate summer weekends. The artist organized “South Coast Artists’ 19th Annual Open Studio Tour” happens on July 16 and 17 and again on August 20 and 21 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and includes over 30 artists in Westport, Dartmouth, Little Compton and Tiverton. The number of artists involved makes this arguably the largest open studio tour in the region and encompasses South Coast towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. ...BREAKING BARRIERS: COPLEY SOCIETY OPEN CALL RESULTS IN A UNIFYING THEME
Throughout my life, I’ve been curious about the people who I share public spaces with, be it on a bus, train, sidewalk or coffee shop. Rarely do I strike up a conversation to fill in the details of my impressions, instead leaving my own to serve as the backdrop for life’s great show. I’ve gotten greater insight into the lives of others through looking through images of the work that’ll be on display this July and August in the Copley ...“WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS”: POWERFUL ART FROM GUANTÁNAMO BAY AT CATAMOUNT
Featuring nearly 100 evocative works, “Art from Guantánamo Bay” features the artwork of six men detained at the United States military prison camp in Cuba for as long as 20 years without being charged or convicted of a crime, all of whom have been cleared for release — although two currently remain in detention. The exhibition has a unique local connection because of the work several lawyers did on behalf of detainees. Artist- detainee Abdul Zahir was a client of ...A MAN OF MANY PLACES: SITKA’S HOME ART GALLERY MOVES UP ON NEWBURY STREET
Sitka approaches us from the back of Sitka Home Art Gallery, his Boston shop that recently relocated to 160 Newbury Street between Dartmouth and Exeter Streets. He’s a bluff, smiling, virile presence who shakes my hand, heartily announcing: “I’m a monster!” I look for reassurance towards Sitka’s wife and business manager, Helaine Gulergun, who hovers nearby smiling reassuringly and, then, to my own wife, Madeleine, who is always reassuring. Reassured, somewhat, I take the seat that Sitka is bringing and ...MAKING THEIR WORLDS OURS: BASEL WAS A REMINDER OF WHY WE BUY, LOOK AT, ART
Art Basel is clearly back, with attendees unmasked (but fully vaccinated) unable to socially distance with huge crowds taking up physical space at the fair, restaurants and tables at gallery booths talking about sales and waiting their turn to buy. With galleries from Germany, specifically Berlin, taking up much of the allotted gallery spaces, and the number of galleries from Asia and the United States way down, art was often comical, nature- oriented and lower-priced than before Covid, but selling ...CAPSULE PREVIEWS: JULY/AUGUST 2022
“Who We Are: Celebrating Diversity” remains on view through July 31 at the Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, 122 Western Ave., Lowell, Massachusetts. The exhibition “is a showcase of art from those who are traditionally overlooked in New England and Greater Lowell including BIPOC, LGBT+ and non-binary communities” as selected by juror Gwendolyn Lanier, an artist at Lowell’s Brush Art Gallery and Studios and a teaching artist at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts, whose artwork has ...