“The best art speaks for itself,” someone stated at a recent public discussion about Boston Creates. My immediate internal response was yes, but art also prompts, at times even goads, us to speak or write. I concede that art is,…
In 2003, artists Matthew Nash and C. Sean Horton began piecing together the concept for web-based publication that would eventually become Big Red & Shiny. It would be a forum for criticism and discussion on contemporary art in Boston that…
By CHRISTIAN HOLLAND Some of the most unforgettable moments from our childhood come from visits to the hospital. Those of us who made it through our formative years without a memorable trip to the emergency room still spent a great…
A big hole will appear on Newbury Street this summer. At 130 Newbury Street, to be specific, where the Judi Rotenberg Gallery will have existed for decades. The gallery will close its doors for good on June 19, 2010, ending…
The artist John Osorio Buck is organizing people to make stoves. In his Stove Lab: A Collaborative Studio project, Buck wants to encourage new approaches to potential responses to emergency situations (e.g. life in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which was…
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston has announced nine artists as finalists for the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize. The honorees for the the museum’s biennial award and exhibition for Boston-area artists are Robert de St. Phalle, Eirik Johnson,…
By CHRISTIAN HOLLAND One year after opening his gallery at 460 Harrison, the gallerist Anthony Greaney has moved to new, more accessible space on the corner of 450 Harrison – where Bernie Toale formerly plied his trade. The relocation from…
Jessica Gath reckons she will have typed about 200 letters and postcards by the time she’s done. On a decades-old Royal “Quiet De Luxe” typewriter in immaculate condition, the painter and performance artist will be typing, folding and posting the…
Call (617) 533-1103 or (617) 480-2994 if you have a Warhol to sell! But if you call one of those numbers, each of which has appeared on signs created by artist ‘Hargo,’ you’ll just get a satisfied Hargo. Shortly after…
By CHRISTIAN HOLLAND Last April I went to an art exhibit at Brown University’s Nightingale-Brown House. The building houses the John Nicholas Brown Center’s masters degree program in Public Humanities, and though a federally-qualified historic landmark, seemed like a good…
City Councilor Michael Flaherty is the only candidate of the four men running for mayor of Boston that has an official written position on the creative economy, artists and arts&culture. We’ve posted a copy of Councilor Flaherty’s “Ten Point Plan…
By CHRISTIAN HOLLAND In the spring of 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court forged a new precedent for the matter of “obviousness”1 as it pertains to patents in the unanimously decided KSR v. Teleflex ruling. Generally, to be granted a patent,…
Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue has announced the seven awardees for 2009 in Boston. The two awardees at the $15,000 level are Amie Siegel and Joe Zane; the five recipients of the $3,000 awards are: Claire Beckett, Ambreen…
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR By Christian Holland I’ve realized that the experience of driving across the country merely affords one with the sensation of exhaustion. The pilgrimage that many young people commit themselves to at some or various points in their…
A Q&A WITH YASSY GOLDIE By Christian Holland Images and the persona of Yassy Goldie, the Master Representative for the Golden Jasmine Yeti Dancers, have been rendered ad infinitum by the artist collective The Miracle 5 for the exhibition “”Holy GJYDhad!”…
WILLIAM POPE.L: CORBU POPS By Christian Holland In his exhibition Corbu Pops, artist William Pope.L launches an assault on the show’s venue, Harvard’s big sandy-gray Modernist bastion, the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts. The building is the only structure in North…
Like Shepard Fairey, Alphabet Soup reuses potent images in much of his work has been active in both the street and gallery. ‘Alph’ differs with Fairey, however, on the articulation of the images they create. He says that Fairey’s merchandising…
A CONVERSATION WITH LEON JOHNSON By Christian Holland Leon Johnson is the Berwick Research Institute’s new Director in Residence (DiR). Having just taken over late in 2008, he will lead the Berwick for the next two years. The organization has been…
THERE ARE NO NEW IDEAS. PART 3 By Christian Holland Part 3 of a 3-Part Series. Click here for Part 1 and here for part 2. Some philosophers, scientists and artists, such as Micah Malone, suggest that there are going to…
THERE ARE NO NEW IDEAS. PART 2 By Christian Holland Part 2 of a 3-Part Series. Click here for Part 1. Plato believed that any idea was attainable by an individual, but only because he thought knowledge is innate. In The…