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New England's Culture Magazine

Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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art gallery

“A HORSE WALKS INTO A BAR” AND OTHER CURIOUS NOTIONS AT HAMPDEN GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Hannah Carrigan

D. Dominick Lombardi’s curation of whit is unmistakable. In a fine arts show at UMassAmherst’s Hampden Gallery featuring works by 26 artists, and with a theme as broad as humor, cohesiveness is not a given. And yet, while “A Horse Walks into a Bar” contains a myriad of mediums and styles, its parts come together to form a wonderfully silly, provocative and subtly nostalgic whole. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of “A Horse Walks Into A Bar” is the innovative and unique use of materials and methods to achieve a sense of playfulness and absurdity. Among the most intriguing of these is Lucy White’s Band-Aid prints, “Sex Pistols,” 2005, “Peace Panty,” 2006, and “I Hate You Brief  XL,” 2006. In her signature minimalist style, with an edge of art-poking-fun-at-art, White offers viewers an easy avenue into weighty issues like gender inequality and gun violence. Other exciting uses of … [Read more...] about “A HORSE WALKS INTO A BAR” AND OTHER CURIOUS NOTIONS AT HAMPDEN GALLERY

THE COLOR OF SPRING: GREEN MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION AT BRICKBOTTOM 

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

The color green is one of healing, growth and renewal. It is the color of plants, youth, good luck, camouflage, money and even envy. After a long winter, Brickbottom Gallery’s new exhibit “GREEN” invites viewers into their white wall gallery fully immersed in the color green through the artwork on the walls. Developing and established artists showcase their work together, providing their own interpretations and visions about this color that surrounds our everyday lives. Many reach towards nature for inspiration, crafting their pieces with various materials. As spring brings rain to the New England area, this exhibit provides a small retreat to feed our creativity and imaginations. On three vertical canvases, Pauline Lim’s acrylic and gold metal leaf painting, “Leave No Trace,” carries viewers atop forests dabbled with lime and olive greens. In the first canvas, a small girl in a red … [Read more...] about THE COLOR OF SPRING: GREEN MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION AT BRICKBOTTOM 

Coastal Contemporary Newport, RI Sarah Meyers Brent On-Kyeong Seong Through April 28th, 2019

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Suzanne Volmer

On view in Newport, RI through April 28th at Coastal Contemporary Gallery is “INTO THE FOLD, Threads of Curious Realities.” Gallery literature aptly describes the show: “There is a messy yet beautiful, organic chaos of form that melds effortlessly into an orderly management of geometric shape. Colors are bright, clean and clear in moments of rest or muddled and earthy where they collide.” This is a two-person exhibition, which features artworks by Sarah Meyers Brent and On-Kyeong Seong. Individually their fabric creations are conceptually participating in an aesthetic conversation that deals with appropriation. Qualities of humor and pathos are evident in the artwork of Sarah Meyers Brent. She seemingly uses every piece of laundry from her home to make artwork. The feeling is of armful after armful of the family’s clothing picked up hastily before company calls. … [Read more...] about Coastal Contemporary Newport, RI Sarah Meyers Brent On-Kyeong Seong Through April 28th, 2019

TEXTURAL LANDSCAPES: JOHN STOCKWELL’S FIELDS OF FLAX AND BLUE BELLES AT ARDEN GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

As traffic runs through Boston’s historic Newbury Street, passerby dash in and out of upscale shops with designer bags from Chanel, Valentino and Tiffany & Co. Yet, at Arden Gallery, visitors are transported far beyond the bustling urban streets with art of Boston-born John Stockwell in his exhibit, “Fields of Flax and Blue Belles.” Oil paint rises from the canvases like little mountains, as vibrant flowers bloom in rows, receding into a horizon that stretches out into endlessness. Skies are stroked with blues and whites, creating a kind of smoothness. The experience of viewing any of Stockwell’s works is one of magnitude and intensity because his impasto painting or the application of thickly-layered paint is one that lessens the space between gallery guests and the painting. It brings guests closer to it and takes them into the blooming flower rows of Sweden and its mesmeric … [Read more...] about TEXTURAL LANDSCAPES: JOHN STOCKWELL’S FIELDS OF FLAX AND BLUE BELLES AT ARDEN GALLERY

Under the Surface: Nedret Andre’s ‘Seagrass: Ecological Engineers’ at Hess

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Bold, whimsical lines and color travel across the canvases in Nedret Andre’s exhibit at Chestnut Hill’s Hess Galley. Stormy blues and fiery corals swirl and collide into each other, creating abstract forms and shapes. Andre’s oil paintings in the collection “Seagrass: Ecological Engineers” delve into the ethereal world of one of the most quickly deteriorating ecosystems on the planet—seagrass. When snorkeling, Andre witnessed this flowering plant thriving off of the sunlight cascading into the waters, giving life to thousands of sea creatures with its production of carbon for food and its safe habitat. This plant so vital to the health of coral reefs and estuaries unfortunately experiences the loss of two football fields worth each hour due to industrial fishing, invasive species and pollution. Andre captures the fragility, interconnectedness and enchantment of seagrass in “Bridge to … [Read more...] about Under the Surface: Nedret Andre’s ‘Seagrass: Ecological Engineers’ at Hess

Ethan Murrow, “Hauling,” 2019, view of exhibit with kinetic scroll sculpture and wall drawing, at Currier Museum, Manchester, New Hampshire.

WEIGHT OF THE WALLS: ETHAN MURROW’S “HAULING” AT THE CURRIER

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, News, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald 

With approximately 900 fine-tipped Sharpie pens, Ethan Murrow blends storytelling with history, community and labor on the white walls of the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire. In his new exhibition, “Hauling,” globular collages of hundreds of tools including a saw, wooden wheel, speedometer, nail, net and modern high-tech machinery, tower over visitors. Alongside them, drawn people hold ropes and play a kind of tug-of-war with the mechanic entities, while some carry the weight of them in their hands or on their shoulders. The diagonal tugging of ropes creates movement across the walls, where visitors stand in the center of a laborious scene. The exhibit draws upon the industrial history of Manchester, which during the mid-19th century, held the largest cotton mill worldwide. Today, old mill buildings house restaurants, shops and art galleries. Murrow combines the tools that … [Read more...] about WEIGHT OF THE WALLS: ETHAN MURROW’S “HAULING” AT THE CURRIER