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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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fabric

Catherine Bertulli in Dressed at Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by J. Fatima Martins

“Dressed,” featuring artists Catherine Bertulli, Jodi Collella, Merril Comeau, Mia Cross, Nancy Grace Horton, and Marky Kauffmann, at the Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University through December 29, is another must see exhibition created by curator Jessica Roscio Ploetz. From the curatorial statement, “Dressed broadly addresses materials, imagery, iconography and memory, each artist experimenting with the fluidity of form while acknowledging gendered constrictions placed on the body. To be “dressed” implies a range of situations and experiences. Dressed is about adornment and identity.” Beyond subject, what is important about this exhibition is that it hosts work that is material and process diverse grounded firmly in and exemplifying contemporary aesthetic trends that are influenced by and continue the blending of maximalist versus minimalist approaches. Beautiful … [Read more...] about Catherine Bertulli in Dressed at Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University

WHERE ART IS MADE: WALTHAM OPEN STUDIOS NOVEMBER 2 AND 3

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

This brisk, fall weekend, November 2 and 3, from noon-6 p.m. is a perfect time to step into a piece of history and art at the Waltham Mills. Located at 144 and 289 Moody Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, the brick buildings used to house textile mills in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, but today houses the studios of over 85 artists in a community environment with a variety of art on each floor. Visitors can make their way across the wooden floorboards, observing the colorful paintings, drawings and sculptural pieces on the walls with sunlight flooding into the studios through the wall-sized windows. Speak to artists first-hand about their processes, inspirations and lives as creators. Take the old-style open elevator up to the third floor of 144 Moody Street, building 4, to enter Roberta Nigro Hall’s space in studio 3, where the white walls are filled with large … [Read more...] about WHERE ART IS MADE: WALTHAM OPEN STUDIOS NOVEMBER 2 AND 3

CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES: RAQUEL PAIEWONSKY IN NEW BEDFORD

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Featured, September/October 2019, Visual Arts

by Ron Fortier

Viera Levitt, director and contemporary art curator at the UMass Dartmouth University Art Gallery, has launched an exciting fall exhibit agenda with lots of interesting backstories and behind-the-scenes collaboration. The gallery is located in the Star Store Campus building in downtown New Bedford. It follows the momentum started with “(The Air) As It Moves,” a site-specific installation created in response to the airflow of the gallery by Rhode Island artist, Elizabeth Keithline, that opened on May 24 and ends on September 12. Keithline’s installation was inspired by Summer Winds 2019, the first festival presented by New Bedford-based Design Art Technology Massachusetts’ (DATMA) that is presenting event-related exhibitions through the end of the year. As summer nears its completion, so are other University Art Gallery shows by Spencer Finch, a well-known New York City artist, whose … [Read more...] about CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES: RAQUEL PAIEWONSKY IN NEW BEDFORD

ART WITH A MESSAGE: SAMANTHA FIELDS’ RECYCLED CLOTHING PROJECT

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Featured, September/October 2019, Visual Arts

by Elizabeth Michelman

This six-week pop-up public art project in a downtown storefront is the brainchild of School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University professor Samantha Fields. It combines spectacle, public participation and hands-on learning. The ongoing, performative deconstruction of clothing resembles sculptor Ann Hamilton’s transformations of objects through bizarre, slowly repeated motions. Fields’ purpose is political, to redirect the expectations of consumers in a prime shopping district. The project fosters awareness of habits of consumption that connect to patterns of social injustice and environmental destruction worldwide. Funded under the Now + There Accelerator Program and the City of Boston’s Transformative Public Art Program, Desires was to launch before Artscope’s September publication date. But the dicey retail environment of Downtown Crossing has yet to yield an empty … [Read more...] about ART WITH A MESSAGE: SAMANTHA FIELDS’ RECYCLED CLOTHING PROJECT

FABRICATION OF IMAGINATION: FIBER ARTISTS ADD TO LOWELL’S TEXTILE HISTORY

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Featured, September/October 2019, Visual Arts

by Brian Goslow

“Fabrication of Imagination,” on view at Arts League of Lowell through mid-September, works on several levels in presenting recent developments in the fiber and paper arts genre and shows how artists are attempting to balance the current political and social climate with their art. The show was juried by Karen Hampton, an assistant professor in 3D fine art at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. A conceptual artist whose works address issues of colorism and kinship within the African-American community, her art practice is the synthesis of memory, history, time and cloth. “The work was submitted and I viewed it without knowing who the artists were,” Hampton said; the show’s prospectus called for 3D fiber-based work, or work referencing fiber, either wall-hung (relief) or self-standing. “I was looking for quality of work and thoughtfulness.” Louise Abbott’s handwoven tapestry … [Read more...] about FABRICATION OF IMAGINATION: FIBER ARTISTS ADD TO LOWELL’S TEXTILE HISTORY

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