
Article Excerpts
Welcome
Welcome to our September/October 2015 issue, compiled during the dog days of summer, which are always a challenging time to put together a fall issue due to some Boston galleries taking time off in late August before their regular clientele returns from their summer getaways, many college campus galleries being on break till their school year commences, and artists being away on well-earned vacations and even more well-earned residencies. But, thanks to our dedicated writers and museum, commercial and campus ...Cornered
MICHAEL ROBERTS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FINE ARTS WORK CENTER, PROVINCETOWN The Fine Arts Work Center campus was buzzing with emerging writers and artists learning from former Fellows on a glorious summer afternoon in Province- town when Artscope’s Laura Shabott cornered Michael Roberts, a very gracious, committed and charismatic man who is perfectly suited to his leadership role at this vitally important arts institution. TELL ME A BIT ABOUT THIS YEAR’S AUCTION (THAT TOOK PLACE ON AUGUST 15). Michael Roberts: ...Strandbeests Are Coming
THE DREAM MACHINES OF THEO JANSEN by Marguerite Serkin Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests are as much about the artist as they are about the creatures he has fashioned; as Jansen has said, “The Strandbeests themselves have let me make them.” The long-awaited Strandbeests are finally coming to Boston, arriving at the Peabody Essex Museum on September 19 after a series of related pre-exhibition “Happenings,” giving viewers at chance to see these fabled creatures in both a museum setting and in settings ...Visions of The Uncanny
OUTSIDER ARTISTS CONVERGE ON BLUE WAVE by Rebecca DelMonico Space orbs hang like menaces over toxic wastelands and kittens parade with skeleton rock bands: this is art from the underground, and it’s surfacing at the Blue Wave Fine Art Gallery in the form of “Visions of the Uncanny: Surrealist, Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Gothic and Comic Art.” This extraordinary exhibition of eight “outsider” artists from across the United States and Europe includes lagoon monsters, aliens and zombies that escape the pulp ...Little Dreams in Glass and Metal
ENAMELING IN AMERICA, 1920 TO THE PRESENT by Don Wilkinson Enameling as an art form is not nearly as well known save to connoisseurs of the craft as painting, sculpture and photography. Curators Bernard Jazzar and Hal Nelson of the Los Angeles based Enamel Arts Foundation, perhaps the preeminent scholars on the medium, have made great efforts to correct that esthetic injustice by putting together an exhibition that is equally bedazzling, bewildering and bewitching. The field is studded with heady ...Parallax
SIKANDER’S ADVENTURE OF THE MIND by Franklin W. Liu Shahzia Sikander savors art as a fundamental, erudite process, a wonderful, exuberant adventure of the mind. It’s an academic endeavor that yields a rich array of cultural symbolisms that she culls directly from those distant, exotic places she traveled to worldwide. What she distilled from those locales sparks a vital, cutting- edge conversation between life’s essential truths pitted against baffling human conventions, thus delineating a “Parallax,” a curious social complexity in ...Flat Depth
PAUL ROUSSO ADDS ANOTHER DIMENSION by Meredith Cutler Candy wrappers. Currency. Newspapers, movie posters and comic books. At once crisp, well-worn and confrontationally familiar, Paul Rousso’s larger-than-life sculptures are ... unavoidable. A Southern child matured in the post-Pop, neo-expressionist Bay Area and New York City cultural scenes of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Rousso iconizes paper with a curatorial eye, a wealth of culture- buff detritus and an obsessive attention to finish detail straight out of the commercial design ...Give The People What They Want
ROZHON AND WHEELER’S AUTUMN EQUINOX by J. Fatima Martins In a time when many contemporary commercial art galleries are closing, business acumen and good old fashioned “people sense” is the “secret sauce” holding together the successful art partnership between gallerist Anita Trezvant and her cadre of artists, notably regional favorite Ann Rozhon. Trezvant’s Hope Gallery, located in Bristol, Rhode Island’s charming historic downtown, celebrates 11 years in operation in December. It is a highly approachable space reflecting Trezvant’s authentic personality. ...New Hampshire Art Association
SALUTING 75 YEARS OF COMMUNITY by Greg Morell Artists have strong personalities, passionate and independent, and making art in most cases is a very solitary labor. Artists, usually driven by economic need, band together to form co-ops and collectives; unfortunately, the result is often short-lived. However, this year the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) celebrates a 75-year history. Their membership boasts 250 members and an ample storefront gallery at 130 State Street in downtown Portsmouth, just a block from the ...Center for Contemporary Printmaking
CELEBRATING A 20-YEAR COLLABORATION by Kristin Nord Since 1995, The Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP) has cultivated a vibrant network of artists who use its equipment and services. This fall, visitors to the non-profit center in Norwalk, Conn. will be treated to what promises to be a spectacular 20th anniversary celebratory retrospective. The exhibition, partially underwritten by the International Fine Print Dealers Association, will showcase high quality prints from leading artists of the 20th century. From the painterly woodcuts of ...Examining South Africa at Beard and Weil
A THOUGHT-PROVOKING DIALOGUE IN THREE EXHIBITS by Suzanne Volmer For its first presentation of the fall 2015 semester, Wheaton College is hosting a three-part exhibition that provides a timely look at South African contemporary art viewpoints in relation to an American artist’s statement. The Beard Gallery is featuring “Unsettled: One Hundred Years War of Resistance,” photography by South African artist Cedric Nunn, alongside “Johannesburg in Print,” a selection of prints made at David Krut Workshop (DKW), a fine art printmaking ...Black Chronicles II
A CRITICAL LOOK AT BLACK PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY by James Foritano When the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art opened last fall in Harvard Square, just behind Peet’s Coffee, I was overjoyed, since there’s now somewhere in the square one can enter and leave with rich takings without being followed out the door by some officious busybody pestering you about “private property.” Of course, here you have to bring something in, leave it behind and come back again ...Shared Sensibilities
THE POWER OF MUSIC ROLLS ON by Taryn Plumb Black ink dances up and down, left and right, intertwining in loops, ridges, curlicues, arcs, waves and pirouettes. Dark solitary streaks bob frenetically or lackadaisically and flatten out. Clusters of lines bunch tight together and then release in varied contours. Interspersed between them, following their own systematic patterns, are punched-out holes, rectangular voids of space: short... short... short... pause... long... long... pause. Snippets of verse also accompany at random, beginning, ending ...Gloucester Days
SLOAN IS RESTRAINED YET INSIGHTFUL by James Foritano Perusing the photographs of roisterous croquet tournaments and ebullient lobster bakes on the beach in the catalog for the Cape Ann Museum’s exhibit of paintings from John Sloan’s five summers spent with colleagues from the hot streets and brash sidewalks of New York City, one gathers that it was a delightful interlude. And yet, could one of the founders of that early 20th century New York school of painting — dubbed by ...Winslow Homer’s Civil War
OFFERING A KEEN EYE AND UNIQUE VISION by Linda Chestney Perhaps best known for his marine scenes, be they oil or watercolor, Winslow Homer was also adept with other forms of artistic expression. The current show at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art highlights one of those other talents — wood engravings. Embedded on the front lines and behind the scenes as a journalist covering the Civil War for Harper’s Weekly, Homer drew sketches that were subsequently translated by staff ...ALRI’S Tangible Thinking
STEAM CONCEPTS COALESCE by Suzanne Volmer "Tangible Thinking," curated by Amy Leidtke and sponsored by the Art League of Rhode Island (ALRI) at Providence’s Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium (The VETS) Gallery, links visual art with mathematics, science and engineering. Central to Leidtke’s concept for “Tangible Thinking” is the inclusion of process. Making a conscious effort to share development stages, the curator wants the show’s audiences to enjoy seeing layers of creation, so they can experience the sensibility of fluid change. An ...An Inventory of Reverie
FIVE FOCAL POINTS TO PONDER AT HESS by Brian Goslow In compiling the lineup of photographers that would make “Inventory of Reverie,” curator Rachel Loischild gave participants the option of being as experimental or not as they wanted to be. “It turned into a show that really touches on history and artifact and combines them with a very subtle feminist undertone that runs through all of the work,” she said. “Everything follows the thread of photography, but in very different ...Clothing Optional
A FIGURATIVE SHOW by Suzanne Volmer Michele Aucoin and Nick Paciorek opened ArtProv Gallery in Providence’s Jewelry District roughly a year ago. Located at 150 Chestnut Street on the third floor of an artist building, there is a creative history attached to the destination associated with the studios of some of Providence’s better known art professionals, including Bunny Harvey and Allison Paschke. The happenstance of location, coupled with Aucoin’s advertising and business experience, created an immediate buzz. Making a lasting ...Stowe & St. Johnsbury, Vermont
EXPLORING ART BOTH NATURAL AND MANMADE by John Paul Stapleton When people talk about Vermont, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t necessarily the art produced by the residents, but the amazing scenery that the Green Mountain State has to offer. “The free art is right there,” said Peter Schumann, founder and director of Bread and Puppet Theater, while pointing to the horizon. “We have cheap art. That’s free.” This “free art,” as Schumann has called it, is only ...Brattleboro Fall Preview
CULTURE ABOUNDS AMID THE LEAVES by Arlene Distler At this perennially favorite time to visit Vermont, Brattleboro and vicinity have much to offer alongside the shimmering days of Indian summer and vivid colors of peak autumn. There’s no better time to cruise the countryside, but there’s also a wealth of cultural happenings. Below are some highlights. BRATTLEBORO MUSEUM AND ARTS CENTER (10 VERNON ST.): has an exceptionally fine group of shows that will be up through Oct. 25. “Jim Dine: ...New Haven City Wide Open Studios
THE MUST-SEE FESTIVAL GUIDE by Sarah Frichey Living up to its trademark, “an exhibition the size of a city,” this year’s New Haven City Wide Open Studios festival has something for everyone. Whether you’re looking to discover new talent, get your hands dirty in a workshop, tour studios with a museum curator, explore projects relating to the festival’s theme or experience something entirely new, this guide features six tailored routes, making sure you hit all the right spots. The key ...Capsule Previews
“E is for Elephants: The Etchings of Edward Gorey,” an exhibition of prints by the beloved late author and illustrator, will be on view from September 1 through October 16 at the University Gallery at UMass Lowell’s Mahoney Hall, 870 Broadway St., Lowell, Mass. This exhibit features prints made in the last decade of Gorey’s career that reveal his obsession with animals and all things elephantine; it includes a large selection of Gorey’s etchings, original plates, memorabilia, scholarly ephemera and ...