Juror Lisa Crossman certainly had her work cut out for her. The Cambridge Art Association’s 2019 Members Prize show features paintings, photographs and sculpture by 60 regional artists. This year’s selection shows strength across many media, including oil, acrylic, fiber, ceramics and mixed media, with a particular excellence in photography. With so many strong submissions, Crossman — Ph.D., art historian and curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum — “sought to honor artists working in a range of styles, techniques and mediums” with her selection. “I was pleased to discover experimentation, skill, wit, whimsy, historical references, adept observation and beauty in this group of submissions,” Crossman said. Despite the diversity of media and subject matter, themes do emerge among the work. Noticeably, especially on the heels of what has been dubbed the second “Year of the Woman,” several … [Read more...] about EMERGING THEMES: YEAR OF THE WOMAN CONTINUES IN CAA MEMBERS SHOW
University Place Gallery
Red 2018 at Cambridge Art Association
The Cambridge Art Association has had a tradition for a number of years of inviting artists to submit works along the theme of two colors: red and blue. This year it was red and for whatever reasons that color, in this writer’s opinion, struck such a resonant chord from the palette of so many excellent artists that I would have broken tradition to title it “Big Red.” Juried by Dan Byers, the director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University, this year’s harvest is such a feast that one is well advised to nibble and digest rather than run wild and miss almost everything. Even at the smaller of the two venues for “Red,” the Kathryn Schultz Gallery, located up Mt. Auburn Street from Harvard Square just opposite the bus stop for Mt. Auburn Hospital, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand in front of every work long enough to do its artistry even small justice. So, … [Read more...] about Red 2018 at Cambridge Art Association