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Artscope Magazine | March/April 2021

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contemporary art

A GAME CHANGING OPENING: MASSART MUSEUM HAS A REFRESHING IMMEDIACY

// March/April 2020

by Suzanne Volmer

The Massachusetts College of Art & Design’s newly-minted MassArt Art Museum, branded as MAAM, offers audiences contemporary art immersion for free along Boston’s museum mile. Roughly the size of a boutique hotel, it presents art programming Kunsthalle style. As the product of a major architectural remodel, MAAM greets the public on the footprint of MassArt’s Paine and Bakalar Galleries. Its three inaugural exhibitions feature an eyeful of world-class installations to celebrate its emergence as a museum. “When visitors enter the museum, they enter off of Huntington Avenue through the outdoor Arne Glimcher Plaza,” explained MAAM director, Lisa Tung. When asked about the dedication Tung replied: “We are very fortunate to have alumnus Arne Glimcher as a donor on this project and as a friend of the college. His involvement extends beyond the museum — he funded a scholarship for the … [Read more...] about A GAME CHANGING OPENING: MASSART MUSEUM HAS A REFRESHING IMMEDIACY

Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), "My Grandparents, My Parents, and I (Family Tree)," 1936, oil and tempera on zinc. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Allan Roos, M.D., and B. Mathieu Roos, 1976. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. © 2019 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

STILL CONTEMPORARY: FRIDA KAHLO IN BOSTON AND BROOKLYN

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, May/June 2019

by Nancy Nesvet

Frida Kahlo was a contemporary artist, even by today’s standards. Her multidisciplinary art practice was a predecessor to today’s public relations creation of celebrity. Kahlo introduced feminism to a field sorely unequal in its treatment of women artists, and let the world know that a physical disability and pain could propel art, not limit it. Her art stood for feminism, recognition of the ability of the disabled, her politics and ethnic and cultural heritage, making her an example and heroine for women, and all people, everywhere. Her art was entirely autobiographical. The paintings told the story of her life, loves and losses. She was proud to paint her mestizo heritage — inherited from her mother — and the artificial leg she wore, making it a fashion accessory. “Appearances Can Be Deceiving” at the Brooklyn Museum and “Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular” at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts … [Read more...] about STILL CONTEMPORARY: FRIDA KAHLO IN BOSTON AND BROOKLYN

Liz Shepherd, Untitled (blue), 2005, found objects and wood, size variable. Courtesy of the artist. Photography © 2018 Charles Sternaimolo.

Rearranged Furniture: Interior Effects at Fitchburg

// Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by James Foritano

You might think you know what you think about furniture: that it’s utilitarian, it’s background, that any influence it wields is only on other furniture and that only at a glacial pace. The power of 10 original and very crafty contemporary furniture designers, now at the Fitchburg Art Museum, very quickly disabuse one of these easy notions as contemporary furniture furnishes metaphors for our most intimate human concerns, fears and hopes. Liz Shepherd’s “Untitled: Blue” is one of the most naked metaphors to meet the visitor ascending the stairs to the exhibit. A very plain, blue-painted clothes chest splits in two by a stroke so sudden and powerful that each half rests on the jagged ends of its drawers — the broken drawers spilling out, higgledy-piggledy, the flaccid arms of jerseys, sweaters and other coverings for the needy human torso. My first reaction was an unsettled and … [Read more...] about Rearranged Furniture: Interior Effects at Fitchburg

ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2017: CHECKING THE ART WORLD’S PULSE

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Current Issue, Exhibits, Issue Articles, January/February 2018, Visual Arts

EVENT ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2017 CONVENTION CENTER SOUTH BEACH, MIAMI, FLORIDA ART BASEL HONG KONG MARCH 29-31, 2018 ART BASEL SWITZERLAND JUNE 14-17, 2018 ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DECEMBER 6-9, 2018 ARTBASEL.COM by Nancy Nesvet For this writer, Art Basel Miami Beach 2017, the world’s biggest art show — in space, sales, artist and gallery representation — provided a giddy week. The crowded fair, full of technology, dazzle and shine, featured work from the big names in contemporary art. Anish Kapoor’s vertical swoosh of steel, “Non-Object (Door)” (2008, stainless steel, Lisson Gallery), reflected people who posed in front of it admiring their reflection. Barry X Ball’s “Perfect Forms (after Umberto Boccioni)” (2010-14, Connersmith) upped the ante by using 24-karat gold in another aerodynamic, futuristic form. Older paintings and sculptures for sale included Marc … [Read more...] about ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2017: CHECKING THE ART WORLD’S PULSE