GALLERY SPOTLIGHT
EXPEDITIONS: FROM ICELAND TO THE GOBI DESERT
PAULA ESTEY GALLERY
3 HARRIS STREET
NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS
FEBRUARY 1 THROUGH MARCH 10
by Brian Goslow
“Expeditions: From Iceland to the Gobi Desert,” featuring work by Lisa Lebofsky, Lisa Goren, Will Nourse, Katherine Richmond and David Stone, can be seen from February 1 through March 10 at the Paula Estey Gallery in Newburyport, Mass.
“Expeditions” occurs as the gallery nears its fourth anniversary this April. “Over these short years, we have had solo and two-person exhibitions, as well as group shows,” Estey noted. “In the past 18 months, our shows have become much more thematic, drawing upon my own desires to expand my client-base’s exposure to contemporary art, and to open us all to the collaborative nature of art, when curated into a meaningful narrative.”
Estey makes no bones about the fact she is an activist, but instead of having exhibitions that blatantly describe the political climate — which she said she’s learned does not produce the desired outcome of attracting more people to see and collect the art shown in her gallery — she’s devoted herself to working to bring people together. “Bridges are the most important thing that I can create and contribute to my community,” Estey said. “I want to deliver shows that express a heart-opening approach to tough subjects; I do not seek to display art that alienates.”
Since she began planning her exhibition schedule for 2018, climate has constantly been on her mind. “Practically speaking, February and March are cold, cold months. I thought, ‘Why not exploit the weather, dive into the weather and have a show just on ICE, on the melting ice, the ice that holds our planet together?’” Estey said. “I want to show the melting ice, in such a way that opens people to wanting to help save it, because they have now been exposed to its beauty. The exhibition grew from there.”
Will Nourse, a self-taught landscape photographer from Amesbury, Mass. whose work reflects a lifetime of hiking, climbing, skiing and sailing — all of which have given him a deep appreciation for the wonders of the natural world — said that work that celebrates and focuses on our natural surroundings absolutely can serve to encourage its viewers to be more active in protecting our environment.
“Sometimes it can be as simple as reminding people of what’s in their own back yards and how easy it is for them to access, while other times, it may show them a problem or issue about which they had no conception,” Nourse said. “Much as the work of Bierstadt, Hill and Moran exposed the beauty of Yosemite to the public, photography today can do the same for other places. Of course, the risk of this is that more people go to these places, which increases their impact on these environments, but I do think that once they’ve seen them, they will be more inclined to take steps to preserve them.”
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A CLEAR REFLECTION: CHISHOLM AT ENDICOTT
REVIEW
JAMES CHISHOLM: REFLECTIONS: OCEAN WAVES, INLAND STREAMS
CAROL GRILLO GALLERY
ENDICOTT COLLEGE
WALTER J. MANNINEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
376 HALE STREET
BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS
THROUGH FEBRUARY 8
by James Foritano
Driving homeward from Endicott College’s North Shore campus toward Boston, keeping time with the traffic’s imperative to move this car — this metal carapace — along, or risk being moved rudely by a sudden bump from behind or the side, both unpleasant, I thought of the slow time I’d experienced on assignment in the Walter J. Manninen Art Center’s Carol Grillo Gallery.
A handful of oil paintings explores with impressionist punctiliousness the way light flickers and gilds, sluices or merely dampens at edges the woods and fields along the banks of the Ipswich River — depending on the year, the season, the time of day.
“Handful” is a good word for the five generously sized pieces — like overlarge windows — of this riverine drama; “punctilious” is perhaps not so good. The action of light on leaves and wood and river water is documented with smallest strokes of the hand and wrist, as if respecting every minute shift in hue or translucence.
The mood is one of absorption, on tip-toes, within such blooming, bearing variety that the painter’s hand and eye must be ever ready to be moved, in whatever weather and in whatever direction; whereas “punctilious” suggests an industry that includes the most details possible before five o’clock closing time — an industry whose motive is expedience but not awe.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, pithily, “You can’t step into the same river twice.” This is such a neatly phrased paradox of sameness within difference that we remember Heraclitus as if he spoke this eternal truth yesterday.
And yet, though we can see and hear Heraclitus speaking, the mood from which he spoke remains as much a mystery as his language to most non-classics majors. Was he bothered by this insight, or did he take it as a welcome invitation to adventure?
There’s no question where painter James Chisholm stands on the matter. And that’s outdoors, behind his sturdy French easel — more of a partner, the way he speaks of it, than an insensate tool.
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ENRICHING AND EDUCATING: ART CONNECTS AT CATAMOUNT
REVIEW
ARTSCONNECT
CATAMOUNT ARTS
115 EASTERN AVENUE ST.
JOHNSBURY, VERMONT
THROUGH FEBRUARY 16
by Elayne Clift
It all began in 1975 when filmmaker Jay Craven launched a four-night-a-week, traveling 16mm film series presenting foreign, classic, and independent movies to residents in rural communities of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. By 1986, it had grown to become Catamount Arts, now northern New England’s largest independent arts center, which helped found other cultural organizations such as Circus Smirkus and Kingdom County Productions. Today, it is responsible for a diversified program in film, music, theater, dance and visual art that enhances the lives of residents throughout northern Vermont and New Hampshire.
In its early years, Catamount Arts operated from a modest building located next door to St. Johnsbury’s Masonic Temple. In 2005, the Masonic Lodge gifted the building to Catamount Arts, and today the newly renovated arts center is central to the St. Johnsbury community, offering an array of artistic programs that often include world-class films and premier performers, in addition to simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet and London’s National Theatre. An annex building hosts art education programs for children and adults, an EPIC Music Program in conjunction with St. Johnsbury schools and a spring Film Slam for almost 200 kids who want to make films.
Catamount’s third annual competitive art exhibition “ArtsConnect,” which opened in December and runs through February 16, was juried by John R. Stomberg, director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. The exhibit received almost 600 pieces for consideration; 77 works by established and emerging artists were selected.
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EVOKING CURIOSITY AND EMPATHY: TRANSMUTATIONS AT MONTSERRAT
REVIEW
TRANSMUTATIONS
MONTSERRAT GALLERY
MONTSERRAT COLLEGE OF ART
23 ESSEX STREET
BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS
THROUGH JANUARY 20
by Elizabeth Michelman
“Transmutations,” on view at Montserrat College of Art’s main gallery and curated by Michele L’Heureux, features three figurative artists. Their paintings, ranging from the very small to the entire wall, are created with acrylic and airbrush on canvas, oils, markers on paper and even glazed ceramic panels. Along with a realist technique, they share the power of a convincing likeness that evokes curiosity and empathy for the person behind the image. Following quite different agendas, the artists incorporate photographic sources and employ collage processes to recombine pre-existing materials into a new whole.
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COURTING THE UNCONTROLLABLE: PRACTICAL MAGIC AT GALATEA
FEATURED GALLERY
COURTING THE UNCONTROLLABLE, PARTS I & II
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN ARTISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS
GALATEA FINE ART
460 HARRISON AVENUE B-6
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
PART 1: JANUARY 3 THROUGH 28
PART 2: FEBRUARY 1 THROUGH 25
by J. Fatima Martins
In her statement about “Courting the Uncontrollable I & II,” artist Marsha Nouritza Odabashian explained why she was selected as exhibition juror: “Establishing a relationship to the uncontrolled is an interest of mine, through the stories extracted from onion skins randomly poured onto paper and canvas. While I have enjoyed developing and jurying these two shows, my work is only included through imagery to help clarify my choices.”
“Courting the Uncontrollable I & II” are the inaugural shows in the Curator’s Platform at Galatea Fine Arts, Boston, and the theme of the exhibition was developed by Jennifer Jean Costello, co-vice president and exhibitions chair of the National Association of Women Artists of Massachusetts (NAWAMA).
As you would expect, the exhibitions offer diversity, although abstraction predominates the presentation. In her juror’s statement, Odabashian explained what the exhibition attempts to communicate: “The works range from simply musing or dreamlike, to playfulness and obsessing. The uncontrollability of the external world of politics to the imaged natural forces of the psychological and internal plays on human relationships. Through our art we express our past, we interpret our world, we comment on our condition, and we express our hopes and fears about the future.”
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Wamala At Whistler
Still Waters Run Deep
by James Dyment
A studio artist at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios (aka “The Brush”) for more than a decade, Pamela Wamala is an artist who has mastered the art of self-promotion, a skill with which many artists struggle. At one point, she vowed to support herself solely on her desire to create.
From the age of five, she painted with her maternal grandfather and later, during her time at Wilmington High School, was one of three students selected to complete an independent study with artist-inresidence Scott Prior, from whom she gained valuable insight. Prior’s art has been collected by museums such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. At age 16, Wamala’s desire to become an artist was also influenced by the art she saw while visiting a friend who had moved to Europe. She recently shared the names of some artists who have inspired her: Hopper, Rothko, Frankenthaler, O’Keefe, Sargent and Parrish.
Her upcoming exhibition, “Peace of the Sea,” has been planned for exhibit at the Whistler House Museum of Art since September 2012. It’s a collection of suites inspired by the ocean, waterfronts and marshes, and is both traditional and abstract.
Wamala’s painting process is usually a combination of plein air, photo references and experienced imagination. “Currently I enjoy moving into the semi-abstract realm with some of my painting suites,” she said. About her choice of medium she added, “I was smitten with the effects of soft pastels, particularly on archival sanded surfaces. Since that time I have ventured into utilizing a variety of wet mediums with the pastels to create interesting textures. This process re-opened my interest in working with oil paint, my primary medium during college.” Wamala is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
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