One of the highlights of any group exhibition opening reception is the taking of a photograph of all the participants together. When “Crossroads: 4 Perspectives,” opened on October 10 at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State University, Patricia Gerkin was in Italy on a short vacation with her husband. A few days later, Debra Claffey would be in New Orleans attending Golden Paint’s Artist Educator Training Program, learning about their paints, grounds and mediums, Donna Hamil Talman in Marseille, France, and only Charyl Weissbach was at her normal workspace in Boston. The four make up the Elemental artist collaborative, the members of which first met through New England Wax, a group started in 2006 for New England artists working with wax. Finding a commonality, they set out to find opportunities for exhibitions for just the four of them. “We spent a good deal of time, … [Read more...] about ENCAUSTIC CROSSROADS: ADDRESSING ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS THROUGH WAX AT WSU
Current Exhibits
PEACE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING: CHINESE BRUSHWORK AT THE BRUCE MUSEUM
Honoring its mission as a community museum, the Bruce Museum continues to offer exhibitions and related programming while undergoing a major renovation in preparation for a celebratory reopening on February 1, 2020. Its Bantle Lecture Gallery is currently featuring the American debut of 15 works on paper — calligraphic writing, drawings and color wash painting — by contemporary Chinese artists who continue to practice and explore traditional methods of Chinese brushwork. The works on view were gifted to the Town of Greenwich as part of the 2019 US-China Art and Culture Exchange, and then gifted to The Bruce by the Town of Greenwich. When the collection arrived, the museum immediately recognized an opportunity to create an exhibition that connected its art, science and international culture areas as well as continue to encourage and expand community involvement. Corinne Flax, the … [Read more...] about PEACE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING: CHINESE BRUSHWORK AT THE BRUCE MUSEUM
AN EERIE FEELING OF FAMILIARITY: JONATHAN MONAGHAN’S FUTURISTIC VISION IN LOWELL
As 2020 approaches, many years since “we were supposed to have flying cars” have past. Popular stories in film and literature like “1984,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Back to the Future Part II” take place in a future passed, leaving us laughing at the ridiculous technology that doesn’texist yet. But “The Running Man” and “Blade Runner” both take place in 2019 (the latter starts in November), but the planet isn’t like that either. This leaves us wondering what’s to come, since various predictions were proven incorrect by time. Enter a world unknown, and known, in “A Trace by the Future,” where 2019 meets an unnamed year, on view at UMass Lowell’s University Gallery through November 21. Washington, D.C.-based artist Jonathan Monaghan’s exhibition featuring recent work incorporates pastels and fluorescents, pop culture and technology in sculpture, video, print and … [Read more...] about AN EERIE FEELING OF FAMILIARITY: JONATHAN MONAGHAN’S FUTURISTIC VISION IN LOWELL
ENGAGING THE PLANET: FRIEL AND HIRST’S HANDS-ON ART AT CHAZAN
From November 21 through December 11, the Chazan Gallery in Providence presents “Of Rock and Air,” a two-person show of artwork by Mary Anne Friel and Leslie Hirst. These artists explore intense process-laden methods of making. Recently, while visiting their respective studios in Pawtucket, each explained their current aesthetics and what they will present at the Chazan Gallery. It was informative to see both artists at the stage of transition from labor-intensive, fabric-oriented processes to making decisions about the technical aspects of presentation for the Chazan space. Hirst is a full professor of Experimental and Foundation Studies at Rhode Island School of Design, and Friel is an associate professor in Textiles at the same institution. Looking at their upcoming exhibit in overview, one sees an obvious correspondence between their sensibilities. Friel’s artwork for the … [Read more...] about ENGAGING THE PLANET: FRIEL AND HIRST’S HANDS-ON ART AT CHAZAN
A STUNNING HOMECOMING: N.C. WYETH’S MASTERFUL PORTLAND RETROSPECTIVE
Boats both rowed and sailed converge on a distinctly Maine island: a hump of rock, with some scrubs of trees but mostly barren, a simple residence located at its central, northernmost point. The sailboats anchor in the turquoise sea; the rowboats dragged up by their mates clutter the drab sand of the shore; and several indistinct figures make their way to the house surrounded by a makeshift maze of stone walls, a muted, impassive sky above. It is a crisp, solemn depiction, the island version of one of life’s few sureties — death. But the 1939, egg tempera and oil on hardboard, “Island Funeral,” is also illustrative of its artist’s range of style and emotion. Described aptly as an “ideal marriage of illustration and modern painting,” it is one of the central pieces of “N.C. Wyeth: New Perspectives,” at the Portland Museum of Art. On view through January 12, 2020, the traveling … [Read more...] about A STUNNING HOMECOMING: N.C. WYETH’S MASTERFUL PORTLAND RETROSPECTIVE
SHIPPING NEWS: PEM EXPANSION MODERNIZES MARITIME AGE
I was vacationing in Burlington, Vermont, when the Peabody Essex Museum formally opened their new wing. Always game for an opening, I flew across three states just as fall color was starting to ripen. I traveled with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation since I was wondering if this mania for expansion, which has taken so many museums by storm, had also bewitched one of my favorite museums — already, in my opinion, in full flight without needing an extra wing. I needn’t have feared. As if a portent of good fortune, I arrived thinking that the opening was over, when to my g reat joy I found that the food hadn’t even been served y et. A s I w as tired and hungry, the rest of the evening sort of disappeared into a frenzy of dipping, sipping, chewing and mumbling as I took a first look of the new facilities. Fortunately, I had made a reservation at the Clipper Ship Inn — one of … [Read more...] about SHIPPING NEWS: PEM EXPANSION MODERNIZES MARITIME AGE