
Article Excerpts
WELCOME May/June 2024: FROM BRIAN GOSLOW
Happy Spring, Artscope reader! Welcome to our 110th issue, one in which we hope to inspire you to get out and explore the galleries, museums and artist studios of New England — and beyond. We received an email from sculptor Donna Dodson just as she was about to board a plane to Chicago with husband, Andy Dodson, to discuss a future “Myth Makers” project of theirs at the Klehm Arboretum in nearby Rockford, Illinois – and would we like a ...MANY LAYERS OF REWARD AT THE FULLER: MCCALL’S BUTTONS ON! INSPIRES CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
In the Spring of 2021, Beth C. McLaughlin, Artistic Director and Chief Curator of the Fuller Craft Museum, responded to an invitation from Beau McCall for a virtual studio visit. In the foreword to the museum’s “Beau McCall: Buttons On!” exhibition catalog, McLaughlin writes that McCall’s story was a great one and as a result, she decided that “a retrospective of this remarkable artist” should happen. She describes her fascination with McCall’s button-centric world of creation, her easy interactions with ...ROOTED IN TRANSIT: NEW ENGLAND ARTISTS SHINE AT ART EXPO CHICAGO 2024
Expo Chicago is a truly international affair with exhibits from 170 galleries, hailing from 75 cities, 29 countries and countless individual artists. A stunning display of modern and contemporary art for sale filled the main hall of Navy Pier, with a strong emphasis on contemporary paintings, drawings, photos and mixed media wall works. Attending with my husband, and “Myth Maker” partner, Andy Moerlein, it was our first time visiting this fair and we enjoyed the scale, scope and variety of ...PHOTOGRAPHY REDEFINED: WORCESTER EXHIBITION TRAVELS ‘NEW TERRAIN’
While it was easy to mistakenly see last fall’s Instagram posts of unique culinary adventures in Paris and Tokyo by Nancy Kathryn Burns, the Worcester Art Museum’s Stoddard Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, as a part of a bucket list vacation tour, the truth was much better — she was in search of unique works that would complete her upcoming “New Terrain: 21st- Century Landscape Photography” exhibition, the third show she’s curated from the museum’s own collection. “These photographs ...WEAVING DREAMS: ANTHONY CUDAHY’S SPINNERET AT OGUNQUIT
Step inside the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA), and a luminous transformation unfolds. The salt-spray roar of the Gulf of Maine retreats and a different type of sensory gale rises up. Phosphorescent dreamscapes. Intoxicating light and shadows. Hues so delicious you can almost taste them. Familiar faces you couldn’t possibly know. This is “Spinneret,” the first solo exhibition in the United States by the contemporary figurative painter Anthony Cudahy (b. 1989, Fort Myers, FL). “Spinneret refers to the interconnectedness ...SONG OF THE DIURNAL AT HARVARD: LATOYA M. HOBB’S PORTRAIT OF A REGULAR DAY
“Morning.” “Homeschool and Housework.” “Dinnertime.” “Bedtime for the Boys.” “The Studio.” Five monochromatic woodblock prints that depict genre scenes from LaToya Hobbs’ life in 2021. “Carving Out Time,” the name of the series on display in “LaToya M. Hobbs: It’s Time” at Harvard Art Museums, began with a list of all the things she does in a day, then a photoshoot with her family in various parts of the house where her partner aids in directing the composition of those ...LEAVING LOCKDOWN BEHIND: FRAN BULL’S MILLION LINE ODYSSEY AT MITCHELL • GIDDINGS
As an older generation of trendsetters thins out, artists who have defied conventional classifications come to the forefront. One such person is Vermont artist Fran Bull, a participant in the Photorealist movement through the early 1980s who exhibited at the Louis Meisel Gallery in New York City. Her painstaking acrylics and watercolors embellished found images of zebras, storks and monarch butterflies in watery reflections. But Bull wasn’t content with mastery of a single style. In her late 40s, she left ...QUESTIONS REMAIN: EAKINS’ FITCHBURG SURVEY LEAVES US WANTING MORE
In 1890, the painter Thomas Eakins was walking a tightrope. His pictures, gaining relative notice after two decades of dismissal, had become overshadowed by his contentious teaching career. Forced to resign from his central position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1886 due to scandal and a smear campaign — driven by members of his own family — the 46-year- old was now head instructor to the Art Students’ League of Philadelphia, a rag-tag band of his ...FESTIVE OFFERINGS, BORROWED LIGHT: FAVELA, PREY & THE SHAKERS IN NEW BRITAIN
Two beautifully conceived and masterfully curated exhibits on view through the summer and beyond at the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) are built on deeply felt artist to artist homage. Justin Favela uncovered works in the museum collection that he could respond to with new ones that expressed a Latinx spirit. Barbara Prey’s six large paintings from her series “Borrowed Light,” commissioned by the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, are placed thoughtfully in the gallery to accompany ...PAINTING WITH PAPER: SHELDON BUILDS ‘PIECE BY PIECE’ AT BROMFIELD GALLERY
Alexandra Sheldon’s upcoming solo exhibition, “Piece by Piece,” invites the onlooker to experience the push and pull of shifting emotions, rampant ideas and fleeting moments. Opening at Bromfield Gallery on May 1, the show is comprised of a selection of collages that illustrate life’s complexities and harmonies — and celebrate their coexistence. Sheldon’s Cambridge studio is just outside Central Square, at the end of a long driveway bordered by inviting greenery and trellises. Inside, a large plywood table is littered ...THE LITTLE MUSEUM WHICH COULD: CUNNINGHAM’S QUILTS HELP THE CAHOON CELEBRATE
The 40th anniversary of the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit will be commemorated with a host of activities and uniquely exciting exhibitions throughout the year. The piece-de-resistance is the Christo-like wrapping of the museum in a massive quilt created by renowned quilt maker Joe Cunningham. Annie Dean, Cahoon’s consulting curator, said that after fiddling with the idea of using recycled vinyl banners for the job, she came up with the idea of using colorful spinnaker sails. “My husband’s ...NEW HAMPSHIRE FURNITURE MASTERS: WELL-DESIGNED, CAREFULLY EXECUTED & ULTIMATELY CLASSIC
Long before I went to graduate school to get my master’s in nonfiction writing, I got a degree in interior design from a school in Boston’s Back Bay. I loved working in the design field — creating residential and commercial spaces, and models for developers to show off their condos or senior housing. I even created a fun disco space where an antique MG graced the middle island of the bar. My love of writing eventually grew louder, and that’s ...MANSHIP ARTS ECHOES LIFE’S EXPERIENCES: NET WORKS CAPTURES GLOUCESTER’S FISHING COMMUNITY
Historically, Gloucester, Massachusetts, has been a source of inspiration and contemplation for artists, as they delve into the layers of history woven within its landscapes, oceans and collective memories. From May 10 through Memorial Day, the Manship Arts and Residence (MARS) program presents “The Net Works,” a multisensory installation that encapsulates the narrative of Gloucester’s fishing community. Since 2020, the MARS program has served as a sanctuary for writers, visual artists, scholars and scientists, providing a dedicated space for self-discovery ...A HUMOROUS RESPONSE TO INSTABILITY: FIETTA & LEMAITRE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS AT FUTURE LAB(S)
In “Pondering Environmental Anxieties,” Patricia Fietta and George LeMaitre have put together an extravagant call and response phenomenon to be displayed this May at Future Lab(s) Gallery in North Adams, Massachusetts. Utilizing the rather large, elongated space of the gallery, the pair has gathered a variety of installations in several different mediums, all heartfelt, yet many a humorous response to the ever-growing problem of environmental instability. Ranging from graphics to sculptures and everything in between, Fietta and LeMaitre explore the ...HARMONIZING ART AND SCIENCE: ‘TAPPED IN’ UNITES FOR CLIMATE ACTION AT UMBRELLA ARTS
The “TAPPED IN: Bridging Hearts and Minds Through Art and Science” exhibition, held at the Umbrella Arts Center and curated by Stephanie Marlin-Curiel and Dr. Linda Booth Sweeney, offers a profound exploration of the marriage between art and science during its two-month run. This groundbreaking showcase, which continues through June 8, seamlessly integrates large outdoor public art installations with an informative indoor gallery experience with a central focus on addressing pressing environmental issues. In recent years, the art world has ...ACT OF TRANSPARENCY IN WELLFLEET: NEW ENGLAND WAX PROMOTES INTEREST IN ENCAUSTIC ARTS
In the New England Wax exhibition “Transparency,” on view at Wellfleet Preservation Hall from May 21 to June 27, encaustic, wax is employed in many different media combinations to explore diverse concepts of what compromises art today. An art technique most famous for its role in the Fayum Egyptian funerary portraits of 100-300 AD, encaustic has been thor- oughly modernized. With subjects that range from abstract to realism, birds to beaches and swirly lines to geometric shapes, a look at ...LINKING ART AND ORGANIZING: GROSSINGER STILL BELIEVES ARTISTS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
Author Ken Grossinger believes that art doesn’t just reflect the world but can help change it. In his inspiring and informative book, “Art Works, How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together,” The New Press, 2023, Grossinger suggests that in the service of social movements, organizers use artists, artists create art, museums and art institutions engage with and promote these coalitions, and that funders, foundations and philanthropists support them. The book isn’t meant to be a history of ...CRAFTING CHANGE: NEW LEXART PROGRAMS EXPAND ORGANIZATIONAL REACH
Since 2017, Matthew Siegal, the first full-time executive director of LexArt, has been on a quest to revive and rejuvenate the role of arts and craft into community life in Lexington. After a 33-year career in museums, culminating in 19 years with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Siegal is using his experience to evolve LexArt from a local art/craft nonprofit with an 80-year history of relying on volunteers to survive, to a thriving resource for arts regionally. “Trying to ...A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE: MASSACHUSETTS OPEN STUDIOS ENCOURAGE BROWSING, BUYING
Massachusetts offers dozens of Open Studios weekend events across the Commonwealth, throughout the year. The majority take place in the spring, summer and fall, and most take place annually, though a few take place twice a year, for example, in Dorchester and Somerville. A handful take place monthly, including in SOWA in Boston’s South End and at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell. Open Studios can range from as few as 10 artists in one location to over 300 artists across ...AN ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCY ADVENTURE: ARTSCOPE’S MICHELMAN AND VOLMER AT CHANORTH
[caption id="attachment_1000532" align="alignnone" width="238"] Suzanne Volmer, Wire Relief. Photograph by E. Talgo, Jr.[/caption] ELIZABETH MICHELMAN: WHERE TO BEGIN It seems a good omen that the director of the ChaNorth International residency program, Hungarian sculptor Brigitta Váradi, has offered me the studio she’d once occupied in the old Dutch Colonial “Farmhouse.” Through the south window of the former parlor, the February sun arcs over a leafless hogbacked mountain. To the north, a sweep of high-tension electrical wires crosshatches the rolling ...CAPSULE PREVIEWS: May/June 2024
Addressing and exploring pressing issues, including climate change, social justice issues and personal freedoms through multiple art genres, the second “WOW (Wisdom of Women)” exhibition takes place from May 4 through June 23 at Workshop13 at the Artworks Gallery, 69 Main St. (Route 9), Ware, Massachusetts. “Art is most meaningful when it provokes thoughts that lead to change,” said curator Terry Rooney. More info on related events, including a rare performance by groundbreaking female rockers Fanny on May 11, at ...