Howard Johnson’s solo exhibition, “Phantastrophies,” is on view now at the Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) through September 30. Organized by FAM’s museum director, Nick Capasso, the exhibition continues FAM’s interest in providing solo exhibitions for New England artists who demonstrate exceptional skill and have an extensive oeuvre with a distinctive and focused singular style. For decades, Johnson’s art has been defined as being within the surreal and visionary mode. Taking a closer look, what becomes obvious, is that Johnson is an artist who works primarily with the figure and word-art pushing it into a brand of pop-mannerism with roots in European avant-garde, Cubism, collage format and American Modernism, particularly the esoteric experimentation and low art of the post-World War II counterculture, blended with an obsessive and organized elegance. The tone of Johnson’s work is that … [Read more...] about HOWARD JOHNSON: PHANTASTROPHIES AT THE FITCHBURG ART MUSEUM
Exhibits
America, Now at Providence Art Club
The National Open Juried Exhibition “America, Now” is on view at Providence Art Club (PAC) through July 20. It offers diversity in media, subject and style, and is a collaborative exhibition juried by Dr. Elliot Bostwick Davis, chair of the Americas Department, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in partnership with Michael Rose, who is gallery manager at PAC, and a curator in his own right. Rose is quickly becoming a star in the curatorial field, skilled in balancing the traditional with the contemporary. Because “America, Now” is an ‘open call’ platform, the final collection on view retains a ‘mixed in quality’ tone. This means that there are some strong contemporary works alongside others that are less effective. This condition sets up an excellent foundation for talking about and asking what makes a work of art ‘good art.’ The theme of the exhibition is clear: art that defines what … [Read more...] about America, Now at Providence Art Club
Parcours at Art Basel 2018. The good and the bad.
Last year, the Parcours sector at Art Basel was so good I did not think it could be topped, and I was right. Perhaps overconfidence, or the fact that the really good projects were done last year emerged, but this year’s Parcours just did not measure up to the quality of the projects from the last two years. The highlights of the sector were video and sculpture, with the best Julian Charriere’s film, An Invitation to Disappear (2018), with techno beats, backgrounding strobe sequences, and a visual grid of a plantation that recalls the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia 200 years ago. The similarities between environmental disaster and party lights and sounds creates an edginess in the piece. With Cate Blanchett featured in thirteen roles, Manifesto, a film by Jullian Rosefeldt (2017) presents the philosophies of artist manifestos including Fluxus, Dada, and surrealism acted in … [Read more...] about Parcours at Art Basel 2018. The good and the bad.
Unlimited at Art Basel: Ritual and Community Building
The Unlimited sector at Art Basel 2018 had great video and fabulous installations that alternately made me laugh, think and cry. Lots of work could be categorized as social justice, running the gamut. Alfredo Jaar’s The Hong Kong Project, including A Hundred Times Nguyen, runs four different images of a little girl who befriended Jaar in a Vietnamese refugee camp, repeating to total 100 pigment prints. Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse’s installation, Ponte City, 2008-2014 (Lelong Galerie, New York and Paris). Displayed their six-year documentation of the social community within a fifty-four story Johannesburg apartment building. Their installation exposes problems and relations in attempting to gentrify a run-down apartheid era building. In Ponte City, community comes to the fore as relationships build amongst the former white, privileged inhabitants of the apartments under … [Read more...] about Unlimited at Art Basel: Ritual and Community Building
Galleries Sector at Art Basel
Basel, Switzerland ⎯ The Galleries sector of Art Basel was lively and bustling on the last day of VIP entrance. Lots of lookers, buyers, and stimulating conversations with gallery directors. Crowds of people lined up to talk about the works. The larger number of VIPS compared to last year's group probably meant there were more people there to buy. And of course the parties were in full swing too, jam-packed with art-admirers. Moving focus back to the show, work was a bit dour in color compared to years past. Browns and greys dominated in painting and photographs with a general feeling of acceptance of things in the state of the world as it now is, since there’s little we can do. But then, while walking along the galleries sector, a booth brought in strong color, exuberance, lifting the mood momentarily. The eye catches Bernd Koberling in his Memories of Water I-III (acrylic on wood, … [Read more...] about Galleries Sector at Art Basel
Marsha Nouritza Odabashian: Skins – The Body Landscape at the Armenian Museum of America
WATERTOWN, MASS. --- Marsha Nouritza Odabashian’s small but mighty solo exhibition “Skins” is on view through June 24 at the Armenian Museum of America. “Skins” features 3 components — “Reliquaries Series,” “Altamira” and “Galaxy Waltz” — that dialogue together, creating a powerful meditative and revelatory environment containing within a remarkable transcend sacred energy. The theme of the exhibition engages the idea that the human body mirrors the land and sea from which it emerged, and all is one holistic living organism marked and bruised by human events and the shift of time. Formally, it is a landscape and figurative exhibition demonstrating the material possibilities of painting with nontoxic onion skin dyes on paper, and the expansive and flexible opportunities found within the practice of drawing and sculpting realism from abstracted forms, and the continued importance … [Read more...] about Marsha Nouritza Odabashian: Skins – The Body Landscape at the Armenian Museum of America