Article Excerpts
WELCOME July/August 2023: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Summer already? I was in the final stages of preparations before we started on the production of this July/August 2023 issue of Artscope Magazine when I received an email from Jessica Roscio, the director and curator at The Danforth at Framingham State University, alerting me that its 2023 Annual Juried Show had been fully hung earlier than expected and that I could see it that afternoon. I had already started to write about the show from its well-compiled digital catalog ...ENHANCED BY THE ENVIRONMENT: THE MOUNT’S SCULPTURENOW EXPANDS THE OUTSIDE EXPERIENCE
Within every outdoor sculpture exhibition, there is a synchronic event happening — the merging of the sculpture itself with the venue that supports it. Usually, the natural environment is an integral part of the whole, lending itself to a conversation with the curated work within it. Sometimes thework is dispersed among city structures, creating focal points within an angular backdrop. Very often one finds the work embedded in nature. At The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts, trees and rolling lawns provide ...TO LIVE IN A HOLY PLACE: MIXING ART & POETRY ‘NO SMALL THING’ AT GEORGE MARSHALL
Poetry is its own art form. I’ve been writing poetry since high school. I draw inspiration from many sources that speak to me. The turtle in peril crossing the road. My 15-year-old dog at the end of her journey. Spaghetti at midnight. Similarly, Kate Rasche, the director for The George Marshall Store Gallery in York, Maine, also draws inspiration from that which is around her. And this time it happens to be poetry. Rasche, a local York girl and trained ...ENHANCING THE MALL EXPERIENCE: NORWALK ART SPACE BRINGS ‘THE MEANING OF US’ TO SONO
Norwalk art is on the rise and The Norwalk Art Space (TNAS), the brainchild of founder Alexandra Davern Korry and Executive director Duvian Montoya, is at the heart of it. Through TNAS, Korry, who passed away in 2020, hoped to “create a space that would enhance educational opportunities for under-served students, promote under-represented local artists, and provide the public a welcoming space to enjoy art and music.” This multi-dimensional arts mecca headed by Montoya currently lives out Korry’s final wish ...A WELL-STITCHED STORY: THE RED DRESS ARRIVES AT SOUTHERN VERMONT ARTS CENTER
Embroidery, as a decorative textile skill, has been valued for centuries. During the Middle Ages in Europe, it was considered a craft and was largely under the purview of craft guilds. It was also a tradition almost exclusively the domain of female practitioners. In agrarian cultures, women were responsible for picking and processing cotton and linen, spinning wool from sheep, collecting natural sources of pigments to dye their materials and constructing the wearable items. It was after the mechanization of ...THE LIVING THING: CULTIVATING PLANT ART AT THE GARDNER
Nowadays, synthetic paints rule all. Sweeping landscape oils in baroque 18th century splendor can be inexpensively achieved through imitation paints which keep away fade and degeneration, at the cost of polluting the ecology they vividly capture. Though the push for the eco-friendly continues, albeit at a terminal pace, plant-based paints and dyes tend to be bundled in boutique packaging, listed at ungodly prices. In a bucking of the artificial, this summer the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum offers an exhibition that ...GREATEST OF ALL TIME?: ‘WATERCOLORS UNBOXED’ ASKS THE QUESTION IN WORCESTER
Who is the “GOAT” watercolor artist, Winslow Homer or John Singer Sargent? (For non-sports fans, “GOAT” is the acronym for who is the “greatest of all time.”) No other painter has ever come close to their Olympian heights for mastery of devilishly tricky watercolor, their ability to capture an immediate moment with a drawn line, their diversity of subject matter, nor their depiction of light and shadow in nature. In addition to Homer and Sargent’s watercolor skills, they were masters ...RE-DEFINING AMERICAN ART: SHELBURNE’S PUEBLO POTTERY SHOW IS THE FIRST STEP
The Shelburne Museum, best known regionally for its extensive collection of American arts from the last two centuries, is about to redefine the very term American by establishing an important home for Indigenous art as part of its Native American Initiative. “Built From the Earth: Pueblo Pottery from the Anthony and Teressa Perry Collection,” currently on view at the Shelburne, is the first glimpse into the vast collection from the Museum’s own holdings as well as the addition of more ...A SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION: NAWAMA EXPANDS ITS MESSAGE TO THE BERKSHIRES
The collaboration between the Berkshire Art Museum and NAWAMA (The National Association of Women Artists, Massachusetts Chapter) is a natural one; the director of the BAM, Eric Rudd, bore witness to the issue of the inclusion of women in the art world, having been involved through his years of teaching at the Corcoran College of Art in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s. A visual artist as well, Rudd reflects on the fact that Washington in the 1960s was an exception ...WELL-DOCUMENTED GROWTH: CASILIO TRIIIBE CONTINUES TO EXPLORE OUR DIFFERENCES
If you love political art, you will love TRIIIBE. Identical triplets, Alicia, Kelly and Sara Casilio and their late photographer Cary Wolinsky’s 3’ by 4’ and larger photographs with a social conscience titled “Repeat Offenders: TRIIIBE Returns,” is on view at the South Shore Art Center through July 22. Wolinsky, a National Geographic photographer for 35 years, with a spectacularly original eye and vast portfolio, discovered the triplets at a retirement party for their professor at Massachusetts College of Art ...SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES: DANFORTH’S ANNUAL SHOWS NOT SO QUIET SOCIAL ACTIVISM
Always one of my favorite exhibitions, thanks to its constant combination of new artists and the latest career progression by familiar names, the 2023 Annual Danforth Juried Exhibition did not disappoint. Juried by Rachel Passannante, Collection Curator, Danforth Art Museum; Leslie Starobin, Professor of Art, Framingham State University; and Erin Becker, Executive Director, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Cambridge Art Association, its imminent opening was announced through a Danforth Art Facebook page featuring a picture of C.A. Stigliano helping ...INTENTIONALLY PROVOCATIVE: ‘USED’ SPARKS A DIALOGUE AT ATTLEBORO ARTS MUSEUM
“Used” is the intentionally provocative title for the 2023 National Juried Exhibition that’s on view at the Attleboro Arts Museum through July 14. The name for the show was conceived of internally at the museum a year ago, as a starting point to spark a dialogue of visual possibilities and pertinent aesthetic connections that charge the air currently. The word “Used” implies material process and emotional connection and like a lot of four-letter words is exceptionally rife with connotations. It ...SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH ART: PAUL S. BRIGGS NOT-SO-HIDDEN MESSAGES AT LACOSTE
Paul Briggs’s ceramic work is a conversation between medium and artist resulting in contemplative objects with healing qualities. Briggs purposefully infuses his clay works with metaphors and meanings. Throughout his life journey as a young athlete, undergraduate student, and ultimately, an artist, clay has always accompanied him. Since his early days attending summer camps, Briggs’s talent and passion for this type of craftsmanship have never left his side. Eventually, he wholeheartedly embraced his artistic career, becoming a mentor, lecturer, speaker, ...A SLIGHTLY ANTIC CAPE COD JAUNT: SUMMER ARTISTS & EATS OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Talking about her husband, Michael Baksa’s jewelry, painter Teresa Baksa said, “You really have to hold it in your hand to get the full impact of these works of art.” Baksa, who was born and grew up on Cape Cod, lives in a circa 1750 home owned by one of the many historic Quaker Kelleys. He created the new woodwork and cabinets as well as remodeled the upstairs and built the garage which houses the sleek wooden wherry he made ...THE RAPID ADVANCES OF DIGITAL ART: MASARY STUDIOS BRING THEIR WAVEFORMS TO NEW AUDIENCES
In a city where technology thrives, digital art is advancing fast, and would make the Lumière Brothers very proud. It is not an optical illusion, magic or mind trick. It is digital art. Grab your Google or Apple glasses and download apps to see augmented reality (AR) or simply not; look around. Digital art is everywhere and has been rapidly breaking ground, expanding into our everyday lives and naked eyes. It is that simple, if you have a cell phone, ...THE ART OF ADVOCACY: WHAT IT IS, WHO’S DOING IT, ROADBLOCKS & RESOLUTIONS
WHAT IS ARTS ADVOCACY? According to Miriam-Webster, the definition of advocacy is “the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal.” So, if we’re talking about supporting the arts — and in Massachusetts — then there’s a handful of folks pursuing various kinds of arts advocacy. Sometimes the cause is more funding for the arts, other times it’s about fair pay for artists. Now it’s for protecting cultural spaces. WHO’S DOING WHAT: NATIONALLY, REGIONALLY, LOCALLY Nationally, Americans for the ...CAPSULE PREVIEWS: July/August 2023
When the first Art in the Park took place in 2008 in Elm Park in Worcester, Massachusetts, founder Gloria Hall said, “there [weren’t] any sculpture shows like this in a public park.” Now, in 2023, there are several taking place in New England. It’s a bonanza for visitors to the sites hosting them and the sculptors. “The artists get to meet other artists from elsewhere and learn how to display their works in other locations,” Hall said. “Love in Action: ...