Artscope Magazine

New England's Culture Magazine

Artscope Magazine | May/June 2021

Subscribe to the Magazine

A vibrant, dynamic magazine with arts news, reviews and info you can use, delivered right to your door!

Subscribe now

Sign up for our Email Blasts!

Special Artscope updates in your inbox every two weeks!

Sign up

Visual Arts

URBANO PROJECT CELEBRATES THE WARMTH OF WE HEAL’S ART WORKSHOPS

// Artscope Online, Community, Visual Arts

by Montana Mendes

A click of a Zoom link and a question of whether the video would stay on and I was in to view the online closing celebration for the “We Heal” exhibition and book release coordinated by sculptor Nora Valdez in collaboration with patients from the Cancer and Sickle Cell Support Programs at the Boston Medical Center and Dana Farber Cancer Institute and youth from the Urbano Project. The project was an encouraging and inspiring workshop that allowed those going through hardships to experience the creativity they have. As everyone rolled in for the March 19 event, I sat and waited for the presentation of what would be beautiful art from people who do not consider them artists. It started with a warm welcome to show how much of a community had been built through this exhibition. The exhibition mimicked the feeling of healing and the work resembled places that feel good to those who … [Read more...] about URBANO PROJECT CELEBRATES THE WARMTH OF WE HEAL’S ART WORKSHOPS

A LASTING IMPRESSION: STUART KNEW THE PROPAGANDIST VALUE OF SYMBOLS

// Community, Current Issue, March/April 2021

by Nancy Nesvet

Forty-four Presidential portraits hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., each unique, reflecting stylistic and political preferences and concerns as visual art codes and signals points of view of society at the time it is produced. Recent events in our nation’s capital have drawn attention to recognizing the artist’s role as documentarian and interpreters of society’s views and preferences. Where a camera is aimed and what a videocam records is dependent on the stance of an artist and their courage to be in a place and time. That has been proven in the videos of the Capitol riots that numerous people have seen on TV and computer screens. Painters and sculptors observe the same requirements and parameters in creating their work. The stance and mind of a sculptor or painter, and the artist’s view of the President, was responsible for the artist’s unique vision and … [Read more...] about A LASTING IMPRESSION: STUART KNEW THE PROPAGANDIST VALUE OF SYMBOLS

CURRENT | UNDERCURRENT: PRESSING ISSUES SPOTLIGHTED AT UMASS AMHERST SHOW

// Current Issue, Featured, March/April 2021

by Hannah Carrigan

In “CURRENT|UNDERCURRENT,” an online show at UMass Amherst’s Hampden Gallery on view through May 14, both the acute and the latent pains of an unequal and unhealed America are exposed, dissected and felt. The exhibition, curated by Linda Griggs and M. Charlene Stevens, is overtly personal and political; consequently, it lends itself to vastly different viewing experiences. The show begins with works curated by Griggs which are organized into four themes: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice, climate change and the economy. These themes reflect “the four key points that then President-elect Biden vowed to address on his first day in office,” and many intersect across and within individual works. The first piece in the exhibition, Christina Marsh’s “One Drop,” features 100 cups containing various shades of chocolate milk. The cups sit in rows on a white painted floor, each … [Read more...] about CURRENT | UNDERCURRENT: PRESSING ISSUES SPOTLIGHTED AT UMASS AMHERST SHOW

CORNERED: JANUARY/FEBRUARY ARTSCOPE COVER ARTIST DANIELLE KLEBES

// Artscope Online, Cornered, Interview, Visual Arts

by Brian Goslow

“Stray,” the painting by Danielle Klebes featured on the cover of our January/February 2021 issue, can now be seen at Springfield Museums as part of its “This Is Us: Regional Portraiture Now: Phase Two” exhibition. While she lives, and works in North Adams, Massachusetts, since earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design in 2017 and after serving as MASS MoCA Artist in Residence, Klebes has spent a great deal of her time out-of-town participating in artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Monson Arts in Vermont, various national programs in Ohio, Nebraska, Georgia and Michigan and international residencies in Quebec and Norway. She’s had a series of solo exhibitions in Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Quebec and participated in group exhibitions in New York and Colorado. Klebes, who mainly works in … [Read more...] about CORNERED: JANUARY/FEBRUARY ARTSCOPE COVER ARTIST DANIELLE KLEBES

RETURNING TO “BREATH”: ZARAH HUSSAIN PRESENTS MEDITATIVE ART FOR A WORLD IN CRISIS AT THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Hannah Carrigan

A healing show made for a troubled time, Zarah Hussain’s “Breath” offers an age-old request: to slow down, to breathe deeply, and to get in touch with who and where we are. The multi-media exhibition at Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum, and accompanying online content, could not be timelier. Global and local communities alike are mourning the insurmountable loss of life from COVID-19; the climate crisis is systemically and sporadically resulting in air pollution and wildfires which threaten our airways; and the last words of George Floyd (and so many others across generations and countries), “I can’t breathe,” have sounded an alarm in our collective minds. In the midst of it all, Hussain’s vibrant, concentric patterns resonate deeply with our most fundamental needs for health, healing and peace. Through subject matter, mediums and methods which match the moment and the movement with equal … [Read more...] about RETURNING TO “BREATH”: ZARAH HUSSAIN PRESENTS MEDITATIVE ART FOR A WORLD IN CRISIS AT THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

SEEING PAST THE PANDEMIC: ROBERT DUGRENIER’S GLASS ART IN VERMONT

// Artscope Online, Featured, Visual Arts

by Marta Pauer-Tursi

If you traveled abroad before the pandemic, you may have stopped in at the Paris Ritz and been awed by the round frosted glass elevator shaft that depicts scenes from the Napoleonic Wars, or perhaps the glass chandeliers at the Divan Hotel in Istanbul, or the serpentine glass installation that runs the length of the bar at London’s Dorchester Hotel. All of those are Townshend, Vermont artist Robert DuGrenier’s work. And that’s only a small sampling of his oeuvre. For more than 30 years, DuGrenier has worked from his glassblowing studio in Vermont and a secondary space in New York City. To say that DuGrenier is a prolific artist, is like saying Tiffany’s sells jewelry — where, in fact, DuGrenier’s work is available. When the pandemic hit last March and shutdowns and stay-at-home orders became the norm, DuGrenier, like many artists, found that his scheduled exhibitions were … [Read more...] about SEEING PAST THE PANDEMIC: ROBERT DUGRENIER’S GLASS ART IN VERMONT