Article Excerpts
Welcome
Welcome Statement, July/August 2016 by Brian Goslow Welcome to our September/October 2016 issue of Artscope. We went into the production period of this issue encouraged by the number of people telling us they couldn’t wait for our new issue — nor could the people who share their copy – which is the kind of incentive we need to keep plugging on those 14-hour days. As we’ve always seen our magazine as one that grows through the invaluable word of mouth ...Cornered: Hope M. Ricciardi of United South End Artists
On September 24 and 25, the United South End Artists (USEA), spearheaded by co-chairs Hope M. Ricciardi and Laz Montano, will host its 30th Annual Open Studio Weekend, inviting visitors to see USEA members’ workspaces in what is billed as “Boston’s biggest public open studios” with over 10,000 people expected to take advantage of the opportunity to see and buy work directly from the artist. In this interview with Artscope’s Adam Baratz, Ricciardi, a Boston artist whose mixed media artworks ...Featured Museum: First Light at ICA/Boston
A Decade of Diversity and Inclusion by Joshua Ascherman Despite the surge in identity-interested art production that occurred in the 1990s — a time when some artists were thinking specifically about inequality within the art world itself — there are still art museums in the United States that have a problem with diversity and inclusion. This is not so at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, which has made it a mission to collect works that “examine the most urgent social ...Michals and Avery at Bennington: Making Their Own Rules
Making Their Own Rules by Marguerite Serkin DUANE MICHALS Duane Michals has never played by the rules. Almost exclusively self-taught, his storied approach to photog-raphy has grown out of years, now decades, of hard work and experience. On view at the Bennington Museum, “Duane Michals: Photographs from the Floating World” represents the photographer’s more recent work, from 2005 to the present. “A great wave of melancholy swept over Tanya” portrays a young woman in traditional Japanese garb, appearing in sharp ...Ratté's Circle of Life: All That Glitters...
All That Glitters... by Elizabeth Michelman The shimmer of Michele Ratté’s gold-infused sculptures and prints is not just decorative veneer. Precious, permanent and pure, gold in her hands is not just a physical material, but a transcendent one. It is an ideal medium for cross-referencing the natural and archetypical cycles of birth, death and rebirth that frame our existence on this planet. At an early age, Ratté accompanied her father, a hydro-geologist, on treks into the Arizona deserts in search ...Grashow Makes the Cut: A Retrospective in Wood and Cardboard
A Retrospective in Wood and Cardboard by Kristin Nord Both people who know and those who have not yet encountered artist James Grashow’s work are in for a treat this fall. The Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP) will be presenting a retrospective of Grashow’s woodcuts while underwriting the creation of one of his joyful cardboard fish menageries. Several hundred larger-than-life aquatic creatures will be assembled, decorated and mounted on sticks during a free workshop offered by CCP, The Stepping Stones ...Brewster's Quixotic Encounters: A Movement and a Region Evolve
A Movement and a Region Evolve by J. Fatima Martins David Brewster exemplifies, in an extraordinary way, how American regionalism has evolved and continues to manifest into the contemporary realm. He is a master of formal and trained juxtapositions and dichotomies. In his paintings, Brewster combines the power of midcentury action and expressive mark-making — contemporary forms of plein air production — with the narrative intellectualism of scene painting, capturing and interpreting, from a personal perspective, the nuances of a ...Tayo Heuser's Spiritual Force: Looking In: Looking Out in Jamestown
Looking In: Looking Out in Jamestown by Suzanne Volmer In conversation at her Pawtucket studio, Tayo Heuser described herself as shy; to discuss her as a person with a countenance of introspection seems more accurate. The assessment of herself was enigmatic and thoughtprovoking, juxtaposed against the array of emotive abstractions which blanketed nearly all of the walls and available table surfaces around her that day, as she prepared for “Looking In: Looking Out,” her solo exhibition that opened September 1 ...Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty: Ode to a Modern Master's Legacy
Ode to a Modern Master's Legacy by Franklin W. Liu It’s been said that photography walks alone. As a 20th Century fine art medium, it opens our eyes to the world around us, near and far, challenging us to think and inducing us to feel what is conveyed through a singular, compelling moment captured through a discerning eye with the click of a shutter. “Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty” is a major retrospective exhibition presenting 146 striking, stark photographic images made ...Unbound in Portland: The Kids Are Jammin'
The Kids are Jammin' by Taryn Plumb When Tim Rollins arrived in the Bronx as a 26-year-old in the early ‘80s, it was, as he describes, “on fire” — literally, of course, due to the conflagrations that consumed the borough for an entire decade, but also culturally. It was an electric, inspiring and frightening backdrop for what would ultimately become his life’s work. After growing up in rural Maine and attending the University of Maine in Augusta, he was recruited ...Feminine Influence: NAWA at Endicott
NAWA at Endicott by J. Fatima Martins “Breaking Ground,” a presentation of 55 conceptually and materially diverse works of art — painting, photography, ceramics, fiber, printmaking, mixed-media, sculpture and bronze — by 46 contemporary women artists of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) asks: “Does being a woman artist influence your style, subject and or medium?” NAWA, the oldest professional women’s fine arts organization in the United States, was founded as the Women’s Art ...Chroma at Montserrat: New England Art Awakens
New England Art Awakens by J. Fatima Martins "A New England Art Awakening” presents a highly eclectic collection of visual art — print, drawing, painting and sculpture — by 40 artists who have been featured in the four volumes of Chroma, an art publication curated by Tryptic Press. As you would expect, the styles and modes vary, highlighting the wide range of material and formal practices explored by regional artists. The exhibition includes multiple forms of illustration and drawing modes, ...2016 Biennial at Fuller Craft: Resplendent In Divergence
Resplendent in Divergence by Don Wilkinson To paraphrase an appropriate Robert Fripp lyric from 1980: “They are resplendent in divergence” — they being the participants in the 2016 Biennial Members Exhibition as selected by guest juror James Lawton, professor of ceramics and director of the Department of Artisanry at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. With over three-dozen member-artists and artisans working in photography, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, fine furniture making, bead weaving, mixed-media work, fiber art, quilt making and other categories, ...Provincetown's In Autumn: A Cornucopia of Art
A Cornucopia of Art by Laura Shabott The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) is at the very tip of Massachusetts (next stop: Azores) with a cultural impact that is extraordinary. In its 102nd year, the vitality of the museum and school can be measured by the 250 volunteers who support a highly effective staff stewarded by director Chris McCarthy. Under her direction, PAAM is much larger than its physical size and location, reaching around the globe with its membership ...Eggert at T+H Gallery: A Moving Commentary
A Moving Commentary by Suzanne Volmer The mission of T+H Gallery, celebrating its first anniversary in Boston’s SoWa Arts District this fall, is to “create a dynamic intercultural dialogue by showing both regional and international artists and providing a platform for experimental projects and ideas.” It aims toward this goal by utilizing an interesting floor plan of two spaces bisected by a semi-public concourse. Inviting and intriguingly visible upon entering 460 Harrison Avenue’s entrance C, an entire wall of T+H’s ...Reindorf at Galatea: Man vs. Nature
Man Vs. Nature by Joshua Ascherman Lisa Reindorf is no stranger to political art; she’s received acclaim for a series of gesturally painted panels depicting the expansion of Syrian refugee camps as seen from the air. This October, in a show at Galatea Fine Art in Boston’s SoWa District called “Building Into Water,” the artist tackles another vital political issue: the environment. The great tension in Reindorf’s paintings is between human and nature; it’s a dichotomy that isn’t novel but ...Safarani Sisters at Adelson: Uncovering the Mystery
Uncovering the Mystery by Kristin Wissler From a young age, Farzaneh and Bahareh Safarani, better known as the Safarani Sisters, were enamored with the arts. Growing up in Iran, the twin sisters spent all their free time drawing and painting. While they took swimming, volleyball and gymnastics lessons, the real fun for them was coming home afterwards and drawing. By age five, they knew they wanted to be artists, and at age 13 they met and began learning from Iranian ...Building on Life Lessons: Thompson and Scheibler in Newton
Thompson and Scheibler in Newton by James Foritano First things come second at Newton’s New Art Center. Two lives of different length take a turn at mid-career. One from philosophy, the other from medicine, both with the equally large ambition of documenting the other side of the brain, the insistent one not sanctioned by the academy or the workplace. I’m looking at “Triangulation” by Irwin E. Thompson, M.D. It’s a rich impasto of blues, oranges and greens, a fruit salad ...Riversea and Artdover-NH: A Hive of Artistic Activity
A Hive of Artistic Activity by Greg Morell A grand vestige of New Hampshire’s industrial past, Dover’s One Washington Center, a glorious old red brick mill of enormous size and height, is being re-invigorated as a hive of entrepreneurial enterprise and creative invention, serving as the new home of the RiverSea Gallery and headquarters of its companion organization, ArtDover-NH. The genesis of this new arts endeavor is the partnership of Rebecca Proctor and John Arens, long-time tenants at One Washington ...Gallery Voyeur Reaches Out: A New Idea Pops Up In Ptown
A New Idea Pops Up in P-town by Brian Goslow There is a new way to reach new audiences: pop-up galleries. For more than a decade, Johniene Papandreas has featured her own large-scale, eye-catching paintings at her Commercial Street storefront in Provincetown. Located just a few doors down from the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, it’s as prime a location for an artist looking to showcase their work as you could ask for. This year, Papandreas decided to do things ...