Welcome to our September/October 2021 issue, one planned in a time of optimism in which long- delayed exhibitions finally opened or neared theiropening and annual fall events and their related exhibitions that had to be canceled in 2020 get closer to taking place — even as art organizations and museums’ crucial fundraising events are being postponed — in many instances, for the second year in a row. Safety is foremost on everyone’s minds. As we were going to press, venues ...

Boston is no stranger to incredible artwork — nor has it ever been. Alongside its vast history, its artwork too is constantly evolving, drumming its heartbeat. Artistic representation, formerly a narrow cross-section of the city’s population, is wider than ever. Naturally, as these changes devolve, Bostonians are apt to see an increasingly diverse breadth of artwork — and thank goodness. Now finding homes inside Boston’s greatest museums,artwork from every corner of humanity has the chance to reach a wider audience; ...

Roberto Lugo is one of the good guys. He could don the Superman cape and get away with it. Why? Because he’s earned it. The “good guy” title and joy borne of adversity. Born in Philadelphia, of Puerto Rican descent, Lugo’s parents are first generation immigrants. He was brought up in Phily in a time that saw prevalent drug use, gang activity and many houses in his neighborhood abandoned due to the crack epidemic. His mother and father married young. ...

“Rhode Island I.M.A.G.I.N.E.s Peace,” curated by Boris Bally, Victoria Gao, Sara Picard and Dianne Reilly, is an exhibition slated for October 7 through 29 at Rhode Island College’s Bannister Gallery. The exhibition features actual guns re-contextualized to stimulate conversation about the topic of gun violence. Imbedded in its title is metalsmith Boris Bally’s anagram: Innovative Merger of Art and Guns to Inspire New Expressions of Peace. Working in metal, Bally has made it his mission over many years to advocate ...

“Once you’ve tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.” — Ai Weiwei The life of Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) speaks to the beauty and resilience of the poetic soul. Born in Beijing, China, Ai Weiwei’s mother is writer Gao Ying. Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing (1910-1996), was a noted poet and intellectual, active under the Communist rule of chairman Mao Zedong. In retaliation for ...

Purple, green, pink and turquoise are colors you think you may see on the sharp gem facet edges of North Truro’s colonial houses, because when Mitchell Johnson paints them, they seem logical, not fanciful, but real. Indeed, color and shape seem to be the point rather than the subjects themselves. The houses and landscapes Johnson paints are, in a way, excuses to express colors. One wonders, is he suggesting our world is just color and form? And yet those colors ...

Born and bred in New Orleans, 34-year-old sculptor Louise Farrell was a newly-single mother of two when she arrived in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her path had led from a Catholic women’s college outside Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska, to Boulder, Colorado, and then the Five College area around Amherst, Massachusetts. Along the way, she was a resident artist at Creighton University, campaigned for Eugene McCarthy, started an underground newspaper, married a fellow activist, opened a bookstore and raised prize-winning English mastiffs. Before ...

If one word could describe the Southern Vermont Arts Center “Yester House 2021 Solo Exhibitions,” it is eclectic. In two words, wonderfully diverse. On view until September 26, the popular exhibition includes work by 10 artists selected to have their work shown in individually dedicated galleries. Works ranging across various media share the creative use of photography, welded metal art, egg tempera painting, ceramics, Japanese woodblock printing and more. Charlotte Ghiorse’s work, with its large installation “Polling Place” and black-and-white images about ...

The venerable biennial juried show of the New England Watercolor Society (NEWS) is being held from October 3 through 31 at Arts Center East in Vernon, Connecticut, and its 66 selected works promise to shine light, color and quite possibly the rather elusive gift of hope to people who come to see the region’s reflections. Adjudicated by the renowned wildlife painter, Anni Crouter, the mix of subjects and styles on display reflect New England’s complexity. By electing to mount this ...

When we moved to Maynard five years ago, Donna Dodson’s sculpture, “Seagull Cinderella,” had just returned from her tour of Michigan, so we stored her temporarily on our front lawn. She received fan mail, daily visitors taking selfies and local media attention. Later that summer, “Seagull Cinderella” flew to New Bedford for a public art project where she became the subject of controversy. In an unexpected outpouring, the people of Maynard rallied behind her and said to New Bedford: “If ...

After more than a year of artists delving deeper into their own practice with little or no feedback from fellow artists or gallerists on the progression of their work, it will be exciting for artists, gallerists and the art public to see new artwork. Giddy anticipation on the part of viewers adds to the excitement for Art Basel and other fairs in Basel, Switzerland, coming September 19 through 26. As Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel was quoted in ...

Robert Henry, one of the nation’s most original artists, will show “Solo Moments” at one of New England’s most renowned art spaces, the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown. (Walker could open a museum, so many notable American artists are in her archived collections.) Henry is an American extension of the late 19th and early 20th century European painters like Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele and Emil Nolde — a figural/figurative expressionist whose canvases swing with massive color and motion. His Hans ...

As we await summer’s final exhibitions and the promise of fall’s colors and accompanying festivals and fairs, we also pay close attention to the safety precautions being taken at New England’s galleries, museums, art organizations and events. As we were going to press, some events were being cancelled or postponed; please confirm with venues before departing from your home. “FoodWorks,” an exhibition “that celebrates Rhode Island’s diverse, vibrant and resilient food economy” and being presented in co-partnership with Edible Rhody, will ...