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Artscope Magazine | November/December 2020

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Landscape

NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AT THREE STONES GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Like a brook trout swimming towards a feathery fly lure in a Berkshire stream, visitors of Three Stones Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts will find themselves reeled into the colorful watercolor paintings of such delicate flies by Gail Burr. Each painting is unique, featuring a hyper-realistic rendition of fishing flies with their reflective metal hooks, poly-yarn and feather quills. Some look spiky and menacing, like “Sparkle Soft Hackle” with long dark strands protruding from its body of green fibers, while others like “Backcountry Kinky Muddler” appear softer with a light gray fur deep green eye at the front. Three Stones gallery manager Lyca Blume described how watercolor paintings generally cover a larger area or landscape with noticeable brush strokes, but Burr’s collection uses watercolor in each careful detail. The artist herself “appreciate[s] that each fly is a tiny unique … [Read more...] about NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AT THREE STONES GALLERY

CAPSULE PREVIEWS: November/December 2019

// Current Issue, Exhibit Openings, November/December 2019, November/December 2019

by Brian Goslow

With work ranging from paintings, mixed-media and graphics and sculpture, digital art and photography, the Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group holds its 12th group exhibition, “Unexpected No. Twelve,” from November 2 through 17 at the Rockport Art Association and Museum, 12 Main St., Rockport, Massachusetts. “The Experimental Group is a creative forum whose main mission is to increase public awareness and to foster self-expression by bringing artists together to explore and share ideas that cultivate creative freedom.” The exhibition is followed by the Rockport Art Association and Museum’s National Show 2019 which opens on November 23 and continues through January 1. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Sunday from noon-5 p.m. Elegant landscapes and still life paintings, evocative portraits and painted nudes, beguiling drawings … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS: November/December 2019

Painting the Moment: Cape Ann Plein Air 2019

// Artscope Online, News, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Cape Ann is a place where families wander through artisan shops and galleries as they enjoy a fresh lobster roll or ice cream, while gazing out at the Atlantic rolling in and out of the shore, boats teetering with the breeze. Cooler temperatures and the changing leaves yield new happenings in this coastal community such as the Cape Ann Plein Air festival from October 6-14, drawing audiences from all over the country to observe over 40 juried American artists painting the picturesque surroundings. Like Winslow Homer who traveled here to capture reflections of light and the magnitude of nature in the 19th century, oil, acrylic, and watercolorists gather today to capture a similar essence. Celebrating its fourth year, painters can submit up to 5 works to be judged by devoted plein air artist, Kenn Backhaus and Cape Ann Plein Air will award around $22,000 worth of prizes to winners, … [Read more...] about Painting the Moment: Cape Ann Plein Air 2019

TEXTURAL LANDSCAPES: JOHN STOCKWELL’S FIELDS OF FLAX AND BLUE BELLES AT ARDEN GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Featured, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

As traffic runs through Boston’s historic Newbury Street, passerby dash in and out of upscale shops with designer bags from Chanel, Valentino and Tiffany & Co. Yet, at Arden Gallery, visitors are transported far beyond the bustling urban streets with art of Boston-born John Stockwell in his exhibit, “Fields of Flax and Blue Belles.” Oil paint rises from the canvases like little mountains, as vibrant flowers bloom in rows, receding into a horizon that stretches out into endlessness. Skies are stroked with blues and whites, creating a kind of smoothness. The experience of viewing any of Stockwell’s works is one of magnitude and intensity because his impasto painting or the application of thickly-layered paint is one that lessens the space between gallery guests and the painting. It brings guests closer to it and takes them into the blooming flower rows of Sweden and its mesmeric … [Read more...] about TEXTURAL LANDSCAPES: JOHN STOCKWELL’S FIELDS OF FLAX AND BLUE BELLES AT ARDEN GALLERY

Artscope’s Nancy Nesvet (right) and artist Maryam Palizgir (left) with her archival pigment print series, “Epiphany,” 2018, at “Material Culture,” Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York.

Creativity to Enlightenment: Material Culture at Elga Wimmer Gallery

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

“Material Culture,” curated by Roya Khadjavi, on view from April 4 until April 18, 2019 at Elga Wimmer Gallery PCC in New York City’s Chelsea District features five Iranian-born artists now working in the United States: Aida Izadpanah; Dana Nehdaran; Maryam Khosrovani; Mayam Palizgir and Massy Nasser Ghandi. Providing a window into the history of Persian art forms, they appropriate the language of Persian miniatures and Chinese landscape painting and spatial orientation. They contemporize traditions of Persian art in new and creative ways while retaining and respecting age-old Persian forms. My walk around the gallery began with Massy Nasser Ghandi’s dark landscape paintings on porcelain, “An Interpretation of the Horizon.” Variegated colors, browns and blacks in images of land visible at night and white waves full of air holes laying on a blue-grey sea composed realistic but … [Read more...] about Creativity to Enlightenment: Material Culture at Elga Wimmer Gallery

LEFT: Black and Blue, 1958-1959, anodized aluminum and paint. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. RIGHT: Memorial to Buddha, 1957 (partially reconstructed 1978), bronze, plaster and wood. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York.

Isamu Noguchi: Groundbreaking Sculpture in Portland

// Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by Jamie Thompson

The Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi displayed an impressive range throughout his decades-long career, producing not only traditional sculpture, but also stage sets, memorials and furniture. His forays into industrial, landscape and interior design evince his belief that sculpture belongs in all realms of life, not merely to be placed on a pedestal and stared at. Hence, “Beyond the Pedestal,” the title of the Portland Museum of Art’s exhibition, a rare Maine retrospective of Noguchi’s work. Noguchi believed that sculpture should not remain static, to be viewed passively from a safe distance. He wanted people to walk around, under and through his sculptures, and in some cases even to climb, play or relax on them. Interaction between people, objects and space is central to understanding and engaging with Noguchi’s art. The exhibition is arranged according to three themes that … [Read more...] about Isamu Noguchi: Groundbreaking Sculpture in Portland