The nice weather has encouraged me to get out of the house more than I usually would in January, so I've seen a lot of art recently and thought I'd share some of my favorites and encourage everyone to get out and see a few of these shows before the weather turns ugly again.
In the South End I really enjoyed Peter Evonuk's "Dystopian Polemetrics (fun with bricks & bulbs)" at Laconia Gallery. James Hull always curated fun and funny shows at Green Street, and now that he is curating for Laconia its clear that his style and vision is still intact. Evonuk's pieces are strangely semi-scientific, and there are great laughs to be had at his attempts to build a better mousetrap.
Over at Gallery Kayafas, Lissa Rivera is showing a series very formal color photos taken inside educational institutions. These images are awkward and intesting in their juxtaposition of the wealth and history of the institutions next to the clutter and chaos of student life. (See my previous post for info on Lissa's gallery talk.)
Also at Kayafas are some powerful black and white photos by Rania Matar of women and children in a war-torn region.
At Bernard Toale Gallery there is a group show of photographs of India, and in the smaller gallery a few sculptures by Greg Mencoff, whose work I have always admired. Bromfield Gallery has some great pastel drawings by Ann Kirchner, while at OH+T there is a fantastic works on paper show, featuring Chris Nau, Mark Stafford, Conor McGrady and David Kelley. Stafford's landscapes made by typing layers of "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" kept me engaged for quite some time.
Over on Newbury Street, a lot of new shows are opening this week so we'll have to wait and see what Howard Yezerski and Rotenberg Gallery have in store, but over at Chase Gallery there is a very delicate exhibition of modern landscape painting. Normally this kind of work really turns me off, but I was quite drawn to a pair paintings by Peter Hoffer. These are both panoramic in scale and I found them very moving.
So, while the weather is still nice, get out and see some art. There are openings at Rotenberg, Yezerski and Axiom this weekend, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting. See you there!
