“Renewal” is the theme of this year’s “Annual Juried Members Show” that opened on February 28 at the Copley Society of Art, 158 Newbury St., Boston. The exhibition, which continues the gallery’s tradition of covering a wide variety of mediums, including painting, photography, graphite and pastel, was curated by Meg White, director of Gallery NAGA. First prize was awarded to Acadia Mezzofanti’s illusionistic photograph, “Self-Portrait: Untamed;” Carolyn Latanision’s watercolor painting of a rusted steel engine, “Powered Down, Bethlehem Steel,” took second prize while Mary Hughes earned third p rize for her abstract painting, “Ice Flow I,” which evokes winter-ice surfaces. The show runs through March 28. Art League Rhode Island is presenting “Twisting Fibers — An Art for All Reasons,” an open juried national exhibition that opens on March 8 and continues through May 8 at the Blackstone … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS
Patricia Brace
MAINE’S MINI-MECCA: CONTEMPORARY ON THE COAST
I was the victim of a studio flood in Northampton, Massachusetts. The sewer drain next to the back door of my basement studio plugged and I was inundated with a nasty slurry of fetid water that infected my costumes, my library and anything under two and half feet in height. I was not looking forward to reliving the disaster as I headed to Tom Burckhardt’s “Studio Flood,” one of four exhibitions currently on view on at Rockland’s Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA). However, much to my surprise, I was enthralled. This is a true miracle of cardboard construction in amazing detail. Creatively clever, smartly humorous, this artist’s topsy-turvy phantasmagoria of mind-bending detail is a delicious take on devastation. You cannot help but smile at its conceit. Every nook and cranny is filled with carefully crafted ephemera, all executed with exacting detail. Paint brushes, tubes of … [Read more...] about MAINE’S MINI-MECCA: CONTEMPORARY ON THE COAST