By STEVE AISHMAN Whatever happened to mindless creation? In a world that rationalizes war, where is the defiant irrationality? Where is the ethical anarchy? The Socratic cynicism? I went to Scope Hamptons two weeks ago to see what the art…
By MATTHEW NASH Summer is a time for escaping. We escape on vacation or to the beach, we escape into books, we escape to the movie theatre. Issue number sixty-seven of Big RED & Shiny is devoted to escaping. First,…
By FRANK PEREZ Having just read an article on a graffiti artist becoming legitimized by selling a spray painted portrait in a gallery for tens of thousands, in my mind, when I saw the ad for the Stencils, I had…
By JOHN RUGGIERI Robin Rhode’s video performance The Storyteller, involves a lone performer whose storyline is enlivened in expressively drawn wall and ground illustrations using time-exposed action and simple props. It is the seemingly bare production values and materials that…
By ARTHUR WHITMAN To those well-versed in contemporary art, the selection of work in “Recent Acquisitions” is likely to have a wearisome familiarity. Many or perhaps most of the artists will be familiar. Most of the art seems to fall…
By JENNIFER SCHMIDT A pocket in Greensboro, North Carolina: two tracks come together at a crossing, going where/coming from…I don’t know. It’s southern here with some BBQ on the horizon. Old signs and antiques… Beer in the alley… And famed…
By BIG RED HARRY POTTER 5 == THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by MATTHEW NASH BLACK BOOK by MICAH MALONE KNOCKED UP: GROSS-OUT COMEDY FOR EVANGELICALS by BEN SLOAT THE SIMPSONS MOVIE by MATTHEW NASH ALL THE THINGS I LEARNED…
By MARTINA TANGA Bouncing two balls between the floor and ceiling with changing rhythm (1967-68) is a ten minute long film where Bruce Nauman bounces two balls in his studio. Though first in control, Nauman seems to spend the rest…
By CHRISTIAN HOLLAND Jon Taylor, an artist of New Bedford, Massachusetts, will, on occasion, put moss into his mouth. It’s true; there are pictures to prove it. He will also make expressions like those Andrew W.K. makes when photographed, but…
By BIG RED Friday, July 6th, 2007 Candid snaps from a Big RED night on-the-town at Laconia Gallery for the opening reception of “Taking In,” photographs by students of the Art Institute of Boston. Laconia Gallery Photos by James Hull
By STEVE AISHMAN I watched a new neighbor move-in over the past few days. Most of her big boxes included multiple types of exercise equipment (abs, arms, cardio), HD TV’s for the living room, bedroom and kitchen (she lives in…
By JAMES HULL I have tried for over a week not to respond to the simplistic, one-sided, Op-Ed rant by Ken Johnson about Christoph Büchel’s problematic Mass MoCA installation disguised as a “Critic’s Notebook”. The opinion piece was proudly run…
By KATHLEEN BITETTI INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS & THE HEALTH CARE REFORM LAW In 2004, Massachusetts altered the law governing Independent Contractors, unbeknownst to many in this State. Essentially, it is now next to impossible for someone to be paid as an…
By THOMAS MARQUET #20: Just as an experiment in seeking that elusive demographic interested in comics about art as well as other things for which the internet is far more popular, I’d like to write out here the three words…
By CHARLES GIULIANO For many years yard sales and flea markets have been a way of life for my artist friend Harry Bartnick. Over a beer and burger recently, actually he doesn’t eat red meat but likes a single pint…
By JENNIFER MCMACKON I have a vivid memory of the credenza that housed the record player in my parent’s living room. It was long and low – all dark wood with vaguely Spanish wrought iron details. Its surface was sectioned…
By MATTHEW NASH A few years ago, the Wang Center [1] showed the film Apocalypse Now in its original version. Coppola had run way over budget, and in 1979 Paramount released this unpolished version to a limited audience, probably in…
By STEPHEN V. KOBASA Wearing a white linen suit, Theodore Roosevelt sits inside the metal cab of a steam shovel during his visit to the newly dug Panama Canal. The workers in the photograph hardly register – they are edges…
By HEIDI AISHMAN Vieques: A Long Way Home, Bonnie Donohue’s exhibit at Casa de la Cultura, consists of several multi-paneled photographs and panorama’s of the U.S. Navy bunkers embedded in the landscape of the island of Vieques. Vieques is a…
By SCOTT ALBERG Second Gallery featured the work of artists Tyler Drosdeck and Brendan Harman in its final exhibition before closing its doors. Though each exhibited separate projects and pieces, the two artists collaborated on the show’s conceptualization and decided…