REVIEW
2018 MEMBERS PRIZE SHOW
CAMBRIDGE ART ASSOCIATION
25 LOWELL STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
by Franklin W. Liu
In the years since its Founding in 1944, the Cambridge Art Association has enthusiastically presented an annual exhibition to celebrate the unique talents of its over 500 members. This year, out of 333 works submitted for the show’s consideration, 43 diversified artworks varying in medium and subject matter were selected by CAA’s guest juror, Joseph Carroll (Carroll & Sons, Boston, MA), for exhibition in keeping with CAA’s avowed tradition and commitment to bring art and community together, said Erin Becker, the Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the CAA.
The cross-section of gifted artists contributing to this show is itself indicative of the fact that the mystery and appeal of producing art for some are sparked unexpectedly later in life. Make no mistake about it, however, because once that creative passion is ignited, the joyful endeavor to produce art becomes an all-consuming personal journey; an interest in art that commences early on in adolescence, followed by art school thereafter, is no guarantee that the art produced is of superlative quality, for it is an artist’s maturity and life experience that is often pivotal to producing seminal art of enduring societal value. Thus, it’s been said that in life, as in art, one is wise to “cast a wide net,” salient personal advice received by one of the artists exhibiting in this show.
Of the 43 artworks presented, there are oil and acrylic on canvas, on linen, on cardboard, on wood panel, along with pristine watercolor, fiber art, ceramic sculpture, silkscreen, paper collage, woodblock print, digital photography, graphite drawing and mixed media, all served up as an ample feast to the eye.
Some art viewers may ask, “Is it subjective that an artist would choose one particular medium to work with over another?” These days, one is certainly overwhelmed by the abundance of choices; it is just as curious to ponder why an artist would find a certain medium more appealing than another. Some like the fluidity and the spontaneity of working with watercolor and oil pigments, while others like the reassuring control and the meticulousness that come with woodcut and printing processes. And, with easy-to-use cameras designed as an integral function of today’s smart phones, everybody seems to be constantly snapping photographs, although teenagers’ and narcissists’ selfies seem to inevitably end up with that same curious, pouting “duck-mouth” look. Times have changed, indeed; interest in photography as art is at an apogee.
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CORNERED: OLIVIA BERNARD
INTERVIEW
WHAT LIES BETWEEN, RECENT WORKS BY OLIVIA BERNARD
ORESMAN GALLERY BROWN FINE ARTS CENTER
SMITH COLLEGE
22 ELM STREET NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS
by Elizabeth Michelman
Olivia Bernard’s sculpture has always spoken through the fingertips to the whole body. No matter how flat a piece becomes, there’s always another side — and always a sense of inside and outside. It’s tempting to read her small glass panels and attenuated sheets of handmade paper as following within the traditions of abstract or color field painting. But Bernard is neither a painter nor a follower and has no interest in carrying forward the ideological, political or art-historical agenda of abstract painting today. Her 3-D sculpture and installation is grounded in minimalism, feminism and process art. Drawing has always been an extension of her 3-D exploration; she approaches the surface not as a field of visual experimentation but as an exploration of her personal boundaries.
In October, at Smith College’s Brown Fine Arts Center, Bernard will be showing two groups of smaller, relatively flat, wall-mounted work. These employ simple, low-tech materials, as usual, to explore the sensation of translucency. As in her larger sculptures and installations, which have shifted from poured Hydrocal carapaces to handmade paper over wire mesh, the materials in the current works are vitalized in an alchemical transformation from liquid to solid. The “Glass/Wax” series involves a process of dipping glass panes in hot wax, while the “Embedded” series fixes linear structures into stable forms in wet paper pulp.
The materiality of Bernard’s works forces us to reconsider our notions of both “flatness” and “drawing.” Her avoidance of traditional frames forces us to see these forms, in spite of their thinness and rectilinearity, as objects. In the “Glass/Wax” series, the work is not hidden behind glass; the glass pane, which serves as both surface and structure, is itself the work. Leaning against the wall and supported only by a narrow steel flange, each naked pane is at risk from vibration and mishandling. Likewise, Bernard refuses to confine the handmade paper sheets of the “Embedded” series. She floats them over an invisible Plexiglas substrate projecting a few inches off the wall, where they are subject to air currents, gravity, and electrostatic attraction.
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IN CELEBRATION OF THE PENCIL
Leaving a Mark at D’Amour
by Marguerite Serkin
Springfield, Mass. – Graphite occurs naturally in many forms, and its appli- cation for modern inscription has a history dating back to sheep marking in 16th-century England. Formerly referred to as “Plumbago,” graphite was used as a paint base in Neolithic times by the Marita culture of the Danube to decorate ceramic pottery. Versatile, easily manipulated, and widely found in nature, graphite serves as an accessible and functionally effective tool in both art and science. It is used in nuclear technology, batteries and brake linings. And, of course, in pencils.
“Leaving Our Mark: In Celebration of the Pencil,” on view through March 27 at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Spring eld, offers a unique perspective on “pencil art.” Organized by New England artist Steve Wilda and curated by Spring eld Museums curator Julia Courtney, the exhibit illus- trates a wide range of stylistic approaches to pencil drawing, charcoal and silverpoint, and features compelling works constructed from pencils themselves by Dalton Ghetti and Jennifer Maestre.
Originally inspired by sea urchins, Maestre’s pencil sculptures are created using one-inch pencils drilled into beads, which are sharpened and stitched together to form undulating, spiny pieces of unexpected variety. There is a continuity offset by whimsy in Maestre’s pieces, which are intelligently scattered throughout the exhibition.
Ghetti’s tiny pencil sculptures defy common artistic approach in their fastidious and excruciatingly detailed construction. Ghetti, whose mother was a seamstress, spends months to years using a sewing needle to shave down a single pencil into a form so minute and refined it captures the discreet nature of all things small.
The drawings in “Leaving Our Mark” clearly illustrate the versatility of graphite in creating a full range of textures: from blurred and smoky to highly de ned and precise. In the rst gallery, Terry Miller’s “In The Midday Heat” conveys an ethereal context beyond the con nes of its architectural detail. Lisa Henry’s “Ablution” expresses the literal simplicity of the artist’s memory of her grand- father washing his aging hands in an emblematic image at once poignant and familiar. Both pieces combine precision in stroke and content with the fluid movement of light, implying a presence that is greater than the subjects themselves. “My goal when installing the show,” said curator Julia Courtney, “was to allow the works to speak to each other as if the artists were in the room discussing their styles, similarities and differences. Although disparate, each work reveals common threads whether in the quality of line, subject, form or composition.”
Elizabeth Kostojohn has drawn upon life experience to inform the compel- ling series “Hurt & Damage.” The series portrays fragile pieces of fruit that have been ruptured by pointed and blunt objects. In one, an upright pear is pierced by a black-handled screwdriver; in another, a partially deconstructed pear is held in a vice grip. The unusual applica- tion of graphite on Mylar in these works creates a tension between object and background, in keeping with their implied social commentary.
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