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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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Installation

COLOR FIELDS REVISITED: FLOOR VAN DE VELDE’S RHYTHMIC LIGHT BOXES AT SNHU

// Exhibits, Featured, November/December 2019, November/December 2019, Visual Arts

by Brian Goslow

Floor van de Velde got inspiration for her light boxes — featured in her latest exhibition, “Variations on ColorFields,” which opens on November 8 at McIninch Art Gallery on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University, from a Rothko exhibition at the Harvard Art Museum. “The university decided to hang some of Rothko’s panels in a dining room,” she said. “The panels lost the majority of their pigment over the years and they were considered damaged beyond repair. But then the Harvard Museum decided to try to revive the color by using projected light. Most critics and curators were busy discussing whether this method was as reliable or effective as traditional art renovation techniques, but meanwhile it made for a fascinating show that played with notions of color and light. I found myself returning to the show several times and just sitting there enjoying the luminous color … [Read more...] about COLOR FIELDS REVISITED: FLOOR VAN DE VELDE’S RHYTHMIC LIGHT BOXES AT SNHU

Northwestern University in Qatar’s Media Majlis

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Media Majlis, the first media museum in the Arab world, is named after the traditional majlis, the Arab gathering place where information was shared and spread. Located in Doha’s Education City, the museum, part of Northwestern University in Qatar, is one of the world’s most technologically advanced schools of media. The building designed by the renowned architect Antoine Predock highlights digital technology with state-of-the-art media. Its exterior features two curvilinear spaces. The large screen permanently affixed to the wall is in the form of a saif tic, the shape of a curved sword particular to the Arab world that is used in wayfinding. The museum, dedicated to media, journalism and communication, seeks to provide multiple views on given subjects, allowing the public to find their own ways of exploring the topics and providing a pulpit for polyphonic discussion in our … [Read more...] about Northwestern University in Qatar’s Media Majlis

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 BASEL 2019: FIRST DAY AT PARCOURS

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Amidst pouring rain, carefully walking on the cobblestones of the Messeplatz in Basel, Switzerland, I explored Parcours at Art Basel. The exhibits in buildings leading up to and surrounding the Messeplatz were concerned with environmental and political issues but did not have the impact of the similarly concerned exhibits I recently saw at the Venice Biennale 2019. Rather, they slowly caused me to think about the concerns presented. The best of them, Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s “The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam (inaudible),” a 2017 arrangement of artificial orange trees, mini-cassettes, speakers painted to look like stones, printed sheets and 3-channel audio, explored the intersection of sound and politics. The accompanying literature pointed out that old cassette tapes are wrapped around fruit trees to keep birds and insects from eating the fruit. One day, Abu Hamdan discovered a … [Read more...] about ART BASEL 2019: FIRST DAY AT PARCOURS

Alexander Sokurov, 2017, giclee (photograph by Nancy Nesvet).

FALSE FACTS ON DISPLAY BY ARTISTS: DAY TWO AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

VENICE, ITALY, MAY 9, 2019 — I spent my second day at the Venice Biennale touring the national pavilions at the Giardini site and in other areas in Venice. The most beautiful exhibit I saw was on the second floor of the Russia pavilion, where the director of the 2004 film, Russian Ark and the 2011 winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, “Faust,” directed an exhibit that featured a life-size giclée of a Rembrandt painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son” on permanent display at the Hermitage, here along with the biblical verse, The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke, and Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, that speaks of property deeded to a son by a father, squandered by the son, further illustrated with statues of biblical figures. On two video screens were a vision of fires burning down buildings in present and biblical times, with Jesus sitting on a rock watching the … [Read more...] about FALSE FACTS ON DISPLAY BY ARTISTS: DAY TWO AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

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