It is fitting that on my last day at the Venice Biennale, as on my first, it is raining buckets, only underscoring what I perceived as the themes of the biennale: false facts and the implications of global warming on climate change. Regarding false facts, the Indigenous Peoples exhibit, “Volume 0,” establishing its place as an original document, was held at the Zuecca Project Space outside the Giardini grounds. Sponsored by the Venezia Fondamenta Sant’Anna, organized by Dr. Max Carocci, the “Indigenous Peoples” pavilion showed a video on four medicine-ball size spheres, sequentially narrating the story of Venice’s impact on 16th century North American settlements. It said that trade and the necessity of acquiring gold and gems for trade provided the impetus for invading other lands, and Venice was a crossroads of trade. The video’s narration began, “We think of these explorers, taught … [Read more...] about TOWARD AWARENESS AND SOLUTIONS: CONSIDERING CLIMATE CHANGE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE — DAY THREE
Biennial
PMA BIENNIAL 2018: PORTLAND LETS ITS HAIR DOWN
FEATURED MUSEUM THE 2018 PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART BIENNIAL PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART 7 CONGRESS SQUARE PORTLAND, MAINE THROUGH JUNE 3 by Greg Morell Biennials are an excuse for established institutions to let their hair down and give voice to the more radical wing of artistic endeavor. For their 2018 Biennial exhibition, the Portland Museum of Art elected to anoint Nat May as chief curator. Fluent with the current wave of the Maine avant-garde, May for many years steered the ship at SPACE Gallery in downtown Portland. For the Biennial, May solicited the help of Theresa Secord of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance and Sarah Workneh, co-director of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. May devoted 10 months of thought, careful consideration and numerous studio visits to orchestrate the 2018 Biennial. Although this was a Maine biennial, and a great number … [Read more...] about PMA BIENNIAL 2018: PORTLAND LETS ITS HAIR DOWN
MAKING CONNECTIONS: WITH DONNA DODSON
by Donna Dodson According to the Biennial Foundation, Prospect New Orleans is one of only 20 biennials/triennials in the United States out of approximately 200 internationally. The current edition, Prospect.4, is curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, who is also the curator of contemporary art at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art. Looking at New Orleans as a nexus of cultures, P.4 features over 70 artists from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the United States. At the grand opening, Schoonmaker said, “New Orleans is like no other city in the world, and is completely unique as an American city. It is the most European and the most African city in the United States. It is frequently called the northernmost Caribbean city and is still distinctly of, and in, the American South. Its rich history and culture provide bound-less inspiration for artists from all over … [Read more...] about MAKING CONNECTIONS: WITH DONNA DODSON
2016 Biennial at Fuller Craft
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, the show highlights the strength, intelligence and passion that grows out of diversity. The participants include “students, emerging makers, mid-career artists and established professionals.” The work ranges from the utilitarian to the contemplative, from soberingly serious to playfully inane, from touching on … [Read more...] about 2016 Biennial at Fuller Craft