
Article Excerpts
Welcome
Welcome Brian Goslow Welcome to our May/June 2017 issue — one that we hope will serve as the blueprint to the start of your New England summer art wanderlust. We had already planned to cover the opening of the Frank Stella “Prints” retrospective at the Addison Gallery of American Art, but when the offer came for a chance to interview one of the world’s most beloved artists, Flavia Cigliano had no problem rearranging her schedule. Her extensive report on the ...Cornered: Michael Mansfield
Michael Mansfield Eric Taubert As the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) prepares to open the doors for its 64th Season on May 1, a new executive director stands at the helm. After a nine-month nationwide search, the museum board selected Michael Mansfield, former curator of film and media arts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, to fill the position. Ogunquit fine art photographer (and frequent Artscope contributor) Eric Taubert “cornered” Mansfield in mid-April, as the newly minted executive director ...A Retrospective Ode To Fearlessness
A RETROSPECTIVE ODE TO FEARLESSNESS Flavia Cigliano The current retrospective of prints by Frank Stella at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy is stunning, spectacularly revealing the evolution of the artist’s printmaking over three decades, from the minimalistic geometric “Black Series 1” (1967) to the visually cacophonous “Near East Monoprints” (1999-2001). Organized to celebrate the publication of the revised and updated catalogue raisonné of Stella’s prints, the exhibit is a testament to the artist’s inexhaustible curiosity, technical ...The Artist's Eye Draws Us In
THE ARTIST’S EYE DRAWS US IN Suzanne Volmer “Matisse in the Studio,” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through July 9, is the MFA’s spring/summer blockbuster. The show, jointly organized by the MFA and the Royal Academy of Arts, London in partnership with the Musée Matisse, Nice, includes “rare pairings of Matisse’s masterpieces with objects of inspiration.” MFA director Matthew Teitelbaum explained that “Matisse in the Studio” is an opportunity to consider “the connections across borders, sensibilities and functions ...Bearing Witness To Tragedy
BEARING WITNESS TO TRAGEDY Elayne Clift I was born a Jew on March 20, 1943. One week after 3,000 people just like me Perished in Cracow, I began to live. I began to live one month before How many Jewish lives ended in Warsaw? In Budapest? In Bergen Belsen? But for an ocean, and other gifts of fate, I might have been among them. I wrote those lines after seeing the film “Schindler’s List” some years ago. I thought about ...Boston Athenaeum's Works On Paper
BOSTON ATHENAEUM’S WORKS ON PAPER Franklin W. Liu Nestled with quiet dignity on Boston’s bustling Beacon Hill since 1849, and just a stone’s throw from the Massachusetts State House, is the Boston Athenæum, one of the oldest, manifestly resourceful, independent libraries in the United States. Walking within its hallowed halls, with no need for reminder, researchers and visitors alike automatically slow down their gait and whisper in a reverential tones to avoid disturbing others on the premises. When one pauses ...Michelman Makes Space
MICHELMAN MAKES SPACE Marguerite Serkin It is not often that the creative output of an artist matches her intellectual capacities. For Elizabeth Michelman, there is context and conceptual reasoning behind her creative choices as an artist and in exhibition design. She is able to convey the impetus behind her multi-faceted implementation through words and visual cues within the works themselves. Michelman, a longtime Artscope contributor, is notably versatile in her use of multimedia genres. Her artistic output as sculptor, installation ...Going With The Grain
GOING WITH THE GRAIN Beth Neville Coming full circle in his long life as a sculptor, Nick Edmonds creates sculptural worlds filled with people, boats, clouds and rocks. Each carefully carved wood sculpture takes the viewer to a extraordinary place. “Crystal Creek Pond” depicts his childhood memories of swimming in his grandfather’s trout pond. Small, carved wood pieces become hills, trees reflected in water, a quiet pond, or pebble rocks of glacial till. As an adolescent, Edmonds delighted in carving ...Young Russians At Shattuck
YOUNG RUSSIANS AT SHATTUCK Don Wilkinson During a recent press conference in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that he told Vladimir Putin that relations between the United States and Russia had reached “a low point.” It’s hard to argue with that observation. Between rumored Russian tampering in the U.S. presidential election, increased accusations of expansionism and global overreach between the two nations, and the U.S. bombing of a Syrian airbase, ...Expressing Freedom At Miller White
EXPRESSING FREEDOM AT MILLER WHITE Laura Shabott There is a Chinese curse [that] says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind. — Robert F. Kennedy, 1966 As cultural institutions defend their existence in 2017’s political climate, Susan Reid Danton — artist, gallery director and museum show curator — is responding ...A Synergistic Blend in Ptown
A SYNERGISTIC BLEND IN PTOWN Laura Shabott In concert with the International Encaustic Conference hosted annually by the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, artists/curators Lia Rothstein and Sherrie Posternak are bringing their weeklong “Photosynthesis” exhibition to Julie Heller Gallery East. “Encaustic is a translucent material that can be used in many ways, from direct painting to embedding, to working sculpturally, to transferring an image, or to collaging different materials together,” said Cherie Mittenthal, executive director of Truro ...Paul Forte, Visual Poet
PAUL FORTE, VISUAL POET Suzanne Volmer It is rare for an AS220 Project Space exhibitor to get extra square footage for an exhibition. However, this luxury is provided to Paul Forte for his “The Alchemy of Collage — Selected Works 2005-2016” collection of visual poetry in order to give breathing room to the show’s complex and thoughtful compression of data. The simplicity of the layout will give audiences the benefit of receiving Forte’s conceptual information without peripheral distraction. Forte had ...An Ode To Her Homeland
AN ODE TO HER HOMELAND Suzanne Volmer This June, Shey Rivera Rios will combine an immersive art installation with live storytelling performances in exploring socio/political issues shaping Puerto Rico today through her monthlong “Fantasy Island/La Isla Fantastica” exhibition at AS220’s Project Space. The installation/ performance artist, who lives in Providence, can relate to displacement, having arrived in Rhode Island seven years ago from Puerto Rico. In talking with her for this article, she emphasized three key points: her connection to ...Nancy Hayes' Universe
NANCY HAYES’ UNIVERSE Don Wilkinson In anticipation of the early-April opening of “Anatomy of a Small Universe,” an exhibition of works by painter Nancy Hayes at the de Menil Gallery, I visited Hayes’ spacious basement studio in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Paintings were carefully propped up on makeshift tables of milk crates and cinder block. Clamp-on lights provided illumination to the immaculate space in a good approximation of a gallery setting. While a few of the paintings are singular selfcontained panels, ...A Hands-on Approach
A HANDS-ON APPROACH Taryn Plumb We are looking out on craggy rocks and an ocean inlet: evergreens border a subdued surf, a mottled sky lazily settles into dusk. The scene has a familiar quality, classically Maine — but yet, there is an inherent whimsicality to it. The water, land and sky are uneven, as if different dimensions have attempted to meld and are now equally vying for the eye’s attention. Such is the essence of Catherine Worthington’s work: The Brunswick ...Live. Love. Learn.
LIVE. LOVE. LEARN. J. Fatima Martins ArtCountry, a new cultural initiative launched in March 2017, is a collaborative consortium of five leading cultural organizations, “nestled in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts and at the foot of the Green Mountains in southern Vermont,” that are working in partnership to create visual art exhibitions and performance productions in theater and music that complement each other for both pleasure and learning. At the core of its cultural character is the landscape itself ...Extolling Walden's Hallowed Shores
EXTOLLING WALDEN’S HALLOWED SHORES James Foritano Thoreau at home…and “abroad” I don’t actually know if Thoreau traveled abroad physically, but his astral body was in constant movement. One moment he was looking deeply at what exists, then that place would become an idea that would go on to become the seed for what we now know as environmentalism. In one of the two exhibits currently celebrating Thoreau’s bicentennial in Concord, photographer Abelardo “Abe” Morell dusts a few inches of Walden’s ...Closer Readings at UNH
CLOSER READINGS AT UNH Linda Chestney Known for its proclivity for a cross-curriculum philosophy, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) doesn’t disappoint in its museum offerings, either. The museum will often invite students to view and absorb various art works and understand their relation to the specific discipline they’re studying. Be it history, writing or another area of study, art enriches the academic experience by emphasizing life from different perspectives. The current exhibition at the UNH Museum of Art does ...Time Stands Still At Smith
TIME STANDS STILL AT SMITH John B. Stapleton As someone who loves the Classics, I was very excited to hear that the Smith College Museum of Art was hosting the traveling exhibit, “Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis near Pompeii.” Before I got to the museum, I wasn’t expecting much more than a gallery filled with recovered artifacts from excavated sites, and intended to give an overview of the creative and aesthetic ideals of ...NBMAA's 47th Members' Show
NBMAA’S 47TH MEMBERS’ SHOW Kristin Nord The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) is serving up a lively stew of works by 90 emerging artists from throughout New England in an exhibit running through May 28. Sarah Fritchey, full-time curator and gallery director at Artspace New Haven, set aside her normal duties to serve as 2017 guest curator of “Nor’Easter,” the 47th annual NBMAA’s member exhibition that brims with color and content. This year’s prize winners include fine art ...Looking Beyond And Reaching Out
LOOKING BEYOND AND REACHING OUT Suzanne Volmer Tucked into an historic mercantile block with its entrance discretely marked at the door, the Providence Center for Photographic Arts has an emergent vibe that feels very much like a relaxed atelier. Visitors step into a vestibule and then head up a flight of stairs to find the gallery at the second-floor landing. The building’s upper floors have a mix of artist studios and design offices, and the North Main Street location at ...Mclane's Global Impact
MCLANE’S GLOBAL IMPACT Marcia Santore She was almost at the top of the world when everything changed. Shandra McLane discovered her calling to work in glass when she was hired as the print shop coordinator at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, founded by Dale Chihuly. She was first drawn to the kiln-fused glass technique vitreography by pioneer Harvey Littleton, whom McLane cites as “a huge inspiration.” “I was attracted to the medium because you constantly have to problem-solve,” McLane ...Dreamscapes of A World Contained
DREAMSCAPES OF A WORLD CONTAINED Lisa Mikulski The work of Philippe Charles Jacquet is often described as dreamlike or imaginary. There are also those who have pigeonholed the paintings as mere landscape. I endeavor to describe them as something more. The work of an arts writer, or even an art lover viewing various works, depends on seeing — indeed feeling — what moves you in a particular piece. Perhaps it is the palette, the line, the composition or the content. ...Spazuk Plays With Fire
SPAZUK PLAYS WITH FIRE Molly Hamill I ran down the streets of Boston’s SOWA district on a chilly night in early April, heading to the opening reception of “Spazuk: Hubris, Beauty & Greed.” The Adelson Gallery on Harrison Avenue was buzzing, but the work on the walls immediately commanded my attention more than the colorful, well-coiffed crowd. Elegant clouds of black carbon soot billowed on the canvases and images emerged: butterflies, birds and bunnies; skulls, flowers and gas masks. The ...Kat O'Connor In New Haven
KAT O’CONNOR IN NEW HAVEN Brian Goslow The idea for Kat O’Connor’s current series of “Water: Pools/Figures” oil paintings came to her at a hotel in Marfa, Texas. “We were sitting around at night, watching bats diving into the pool for drinks in the middle of the desert,” she explained. “Somehow, the reflection of figures around and in the pool became more than the pool.” The inspiration of that evening became more than a memory for O’Connor, as it led ...A Generosity of Spirit
A GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT Donna Dodson I do not think I am alone in thinking Shelley Reed has “made it.” I admire her, look up to her and respect her work. She makes no secret of how hard she works or how serious she is, but she is also approachable, generous and kind. She has had an impressive trajectory in the last 10 years since winning the Maud Morgan Prize for painting in 2005. Reed is currently represented by the ...