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Since the 1990s, Beverly Semmes’s work has been at the forefront of contemporary art. Semmes’s work is situated at the nexus of American feminism, puritanism, and history of sculpture and craft. This work spans across disciplines and cultures, from photography, sculpture, video, and large-scale installation. I first met Semmes two years ago while serving as Assistant Director of Samsøñ and working on her collaborative project (with Jennifer Minniti), Body Double. The collective utilized Semmes Feminist Responsibility Project [FRP] drawings as visuals and conceptual source to establish new politics and fashion pieces in…
Sidetracked, which occupies the storefront gallery in Watertown, Drive-by Projects, is a group show featuring work by Katherine Mitchell DiRico, Mike Witt and Andy Bablo. Though they use quite different materials, these artists address communication and modes of transmission in a way that is both current and timeless. Though dealing with a theme explored by others for decades – arguably centuries – Sidetracked feels especially topical. The innovation that allows us to become more connected can also kill its predecessors while absorbing it, all while presenting new problems. In the era of…
West, Kathya M. Landeros’s photography show at kijidome, presents both the people and the land of Central California and Eastern Washington State, bringing a particular reality – that of Latinx agricultural communities in these regions – into focus. In a gallery context, Landeros’s images serve as a window into a world that reveals people and land as two faces of a narrative. The selected images are at times inviting, at other times confrontational. The blend of landscapes with dreamy, cotton candy skies and portraits focused squarely on sitters commanding attention coalesce to…
I shall always be grateful to Honduras, though for it has given me back myself. I am my old brash self again. -Zora Neale Hurston, Puerto Cortes, Honduras, May 20, 1947 Being a fan or scholar of Zora Neale Hurston renders so many gifts and challenges. Ever since I first read her classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Carla Kaplan’s almost 900-page annotated collection of the writer’s correspondence, Zora Neale Hurston, A Life in Letters, I have been enthralled with an understudied 10-month period in this prolific artist’s life. It’s…
A sightline refers to a direct line of vision between spectator and an object in view, whether it’s the Washington Monument, a Broadway musical, or an NFL playoff game. To painter Dana Clancy, sightlines are a way to compose and construct a painting from multiple viewpoints. In Sightlines, her solo exhibition at Alpha Gallery, each of her fifteen works orients us through a network of perspectives, geometric reflections, and refractions of color. The works in Sightlines each depicts a view from inside a contemporary Boston museum with the exception of “Past Present”…
With a background in linguistics and work experience as an interpreter for several years in China, Furen Dai’s artistic practice centers on language and the culture built through it. She reflects on various forms of interpretation in her work with video, sculpture, and performance. In her previous work as interpreter, Dai was often in a position between two cultures attempting to examine where these two cultures met, overlap, and where they differentiate. In this interview, Dai and I spoke about the interdependent themes of language and cultural politics in regard to economic…
Corey Escoto’s current solo show at Samsøn Projects, “A Routine Pattern of Troubling Behaviour,” is far more than at first meets the eye. When I walked into the gallery, a spare white rectangle, the works seemed quiet and unassuming. Until I stepped closer. From the very first piece, “Know It All” (2015, Impossible Silver Shade Instant Film, 19.24” x 24.5” framed), from title alone I couldn’t help but make reference to POTUS 45. The image appears gritty in sepia tones, the text glowing, with what appears to be a pen on a string…
Providence artist Allison Paschke can be disobedient in museums. Sometimes, she’ll find a sculpture or object irresistible, and smooth her hand carefully over its surface. In her latest exhibit at AS220 Project Space, Paschke extends this “mischievous glee” to her viewers. She offers a rejoinder to the usual gallery signage, the typical prohibitions on contact, and invites the audience to please touch with a series of four interactive and engaging installations. Upon this playground, one can abandon analysis and reclaim instinct. Paschke wants people to approach her art as a child would,…