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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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science

NANCY NESVET AND LARRY RINGGOLD: ENDANGERD AT ZENITH GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Elizabeth Ashe

Nancy Nesvet’s photographs and large-scale oil paintings, on view alongside sculptures by Larry Ringgold in “enDANGERd” through November 16 at Washington, D.C.’s Zenith Gallery, take entirely different turns of portraying the sea. In the paintings, the sea is vast, changing and tumultuous: in the photographs, murky depths pull me to look closely at the details. Those details are both threatening and beautiful, making the photographs look like a coming environmental apocalypse. There is a masterful handle on scale in her paintings. We know polar bears to be substantial, but in Nesvet’s eight paintings, they are microscopic, appearing in the far distance, unreachable and not treacherous at all. The bears are stranded on icebergs broken off from the mother glacier, with strong seas pushing them apart. “If but all the seas rise up,” 48” x 58”, the unending seascape shows two polar bears, … [Read more...] about NANCY NESVET AND LARRY RINGGOLD: ENDANGERD AT ZENITH GALLERY

LOCAL ECOLOGIES AS ART: UNIVERSITY GALLERIES INSPIRE TIMELY DISCUSSION

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

by Ron Fortier

“Local Ecologies,” which will be exhibited at three University of Massachusetts institution galleries during the 2019-20 school year, features commission artworks by artists who have lived and worked in eastern Massachusetts. The traveling exhibition was organized by Kirsten Swenson, an associate professor and art history coordinator at UMass Lowell; Sam Toabe, gallery director at UMass Boston; and art historian and curator Rebecca Uchill, a full-time lecturer in art education, art history and media studies at UMass Dartmouth. Onsite curators are Toabe at UMass Boston; Uchill and University Art Gallery director Viera Levitt at UMass Dartmouth; and Swenson and University Gallery coordinator Deborah Santoro at UMass Lowell. “I am excited to work with UMass Dartmouth art history professor Rebecca Uchill and other partners on the exhibition “Local Ecologies” that is bridging the … [Read more...] about LOCAL ECOLOGIES AS ART: UNIVERSITY GALLERIES INSPIRE TIMELY DISCUSSION

EDGE OF CHAOS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID RICCI OPENS AT ARTSPACE MAYNARD

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Flavia Cigliano

Capturing the “edge of chaos” has been the artistic goal of photographer David Ricci for the past four decades. His training as an engineer has steered his sensibilities to the observation and documentation of systems that complexity scientists investigate: What occurs when large quantities of individual elements coalesce? At these super high levels of organization, what new structures arise? According to Ricci’s forthcoming book, a whole new phenomenon appears, fundamentally different and greater than any of its parts. This phenomenon is the “edge of chaos.” Ricci goes on to explain, “Like free jazz, everything is not always in perfect harmony, yet a novel, vibrant creation surfaces.” In his book and current solo exhibit, both titled “Edge of Chaos,” Ricci explores these questions with photographs he has taken since the mid-1980s. Ricci brings both his natural predilection for … [Read more...] about EDGE OF CHAOS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID RICCI OPENS AT ARTSPACE MAYNARD

Humberto Ramirez, "4-23-18," 2019, acrylic on canvas, 24” x 24”.

BOTANICAL ABSTRACTION: HUMBERTO RAMIREZ CREATES SPACE AT ARTISTREE

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, May/June 2019

by Elayne Clift

Whether he is painting, teaching, curating or creating a video, multimedia artist Humberto Ramirez is likely to be thinking about social issues and the power of art in shaping values and perceptions. In his exhibit at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret, Vermont, on view from May 17 through June 1, Ramirez’s abstract paintings allude to botanical gardens that use the conventions of abstraction but go further, delving into the deeply rooted experience of the body and the world. In a way, he explained, “they are less a radical denial of social reality than a reaffirmation of the desire for creative space and autonomy. The works are about form, space, light and color,” he added. “They point to the corporeal world and seek to transcend it.” If this concept seems difficult to grasp, it may be because Ramirez is trained in both the sciences and the humanities, and he … [Read more...] about BOTANICAL ABSTRACTION: HUMBERTO RAMIREZ CREATES SPACE AT ARTISTREE

SCIENTIFICALLY MOVING: HIGLEY DRAWS US IN

// Current Issue, Exhibits, Issue Articles, January/February 2018, Review, Visual Arts

REVIEW KATE HIGLEY: PAINTING BENEATH THE SURFACE GATEWAY GALLERY GREAT BAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 320 CORPORATE DRIVE PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE THROUGH MARCH 2 by Linda Chestney Living life on the edge artistically — that’s how I describe Kate Higley. She pushes past fear, embraces change and lives life large. She has the unusual ability to enliven the right brain and left brain simultaneously. Higley — whose experience is diverse — loves art and loves biology. But for practical reasons early on in her life, she chose to study nursing. She immersed herself in biology, anatomy and physiology, ultimately working alongside surgeons where she was spellbound by the intricacies and colors of the human body. She was mesmerized with blood traveling through vessels, which caused organs and structures to pulse in extraordinary color. Absorbingly fascinating. Over her career, … [Read more...] about SCIENTIFICALLY MOVING: HIGLEY DRAWS US IN

Image: Da Vinci — The Genius at the Museum of Science.

Da Vinci — The Genius at the Museum of Science

// Exhibits, News

By Kate Kenney Cambridge, MA - Inside the Museum of Science is a dark room full of realized dreams that’s hosting a temporary exhibit from Grande Exhibitions and Pascal Cotte, France: “Da Vinci — The Genius,” an exhibition that allows visitors into Leonardo da Vinci’s world with a behind-the-paintings look at some of his most infamous creations. One side of the room is decorated with large wooden models depicting da Vinci’s finest experimental designs. What were once simply notebook sketches have now been realized into life-sized hand-crafted models. Structures range from a canvas parachute that could be easily mistaken for architectural art piece, to a Jules Verneian — and honestly terrifying — diving suit complete with webbed flippers. Many of the objects show da Vinci’s curiosity in military engineering. A large wooden catapult and tank show his imaginative ideas on how to … [Read more...] about Da Vinci — The Genius at the Museum of Science