Newest Features
By JOANNE MATTERA The Mood and the Particulars By all accounts the mood going into Miami was wary. Dealers in general were fearful that the bubble was about to burst, and the smaller dealers were concerned that the greater number of satellite fairs this year would dilute their sales. Apparently the big guns had no problems; Gagogian sold $10 million worth of art, according to Bloomberg News. Among the smaller galleries in the satellite fairs, the mood lifted as sales began to rack up. Many smaller galleries sold out, and most at…
By DAVID O. AVRUCH Likely owing to my ADD pedigree, exhibitions comprised of nothing but drawings tend to be underwhelming experiences. Inked nudes on textured paper, oversize charcoal portraits, sketches of furniture… Why? Good art can come in any medium, obviously, but drawing may be the toughest one to get excited about. I approached the Mills Gallery’s biannual Drawing Show, Drawing the Line, braced for a well-curated snooze. I shouldn’t have stressed: there was only one charcoal portrait in the set, and it stuck out like hell. In fact, it didn’t take…
By STEPHEN V. KOBASA These woods are dark and deep; but they are not lovely. This is Ori Gersht’s video panorama, The Forest, made in 2005. A stand of trees, indistinct voices, one crack of sound. A hunter, or an execution? How much of the history of its inspiration do we require to make sense of this piece? Over sixty years ago, Gersht’s father-in -law hid, desperate, in these Ukrainian woods. For many other Jews, they were a killing ground. The specifics of those horrors are nowhere noted in the work itself.…
By CHARLES GIULIANO There was a profound sense of disappointment and loss when it was recently announced that negotiations between the Contemporary Artists Center and the City of North Adams to develop space in the former Notre Dame Church and rectory for gallery, studio and office space had broken down. There was also surprise on the part of city officials when just days after North Adams and Arch Street Development ended its negotiations with CAC the arts group cut a deal for a pair of historic buildings in nearby South Troy, New…
By MATTHEW NASH Artists crave opportunity more than anything else. We look for new places to show our work, new audiences for our ideas, new people to join the conversation. We look for bigger projects, a larger scope, and an audience to match our ambitions. We look for a thriving art community. For the most part, New England has a strong a dedicated group of artists, curators, collectors and supporters. Our larger institutions are internationally respected, our colleges and universities are always challenging, and our artist community strives to compete with the…
By THOMAS MARQUET #26: Gift Certificates for everyone. “The White Cube” comics can be read in series in the Big RED & Shiny Collections section. Thomas Marquet is a cartoonist, sculptor, and critic, based in Brooklyn, New York, which is an admittedly unoriginal place to be pursuing any of these things.Get The White Cube every day at Tom’s blog.
By STEVE AISHMAN “The human brain is a cultural artifact.” –Timothy Taylor Have you ever been standing at the baggage claim watching the luggage go around and you swear that every piece of luggage that comes around looks like yours? Well, it happens to me and I end up checking the tags of four or five bags that vaguely match the qualities of my bag. I once spotted and correctly identified someone I had gone to kindergarten with 20 years ago across a crowded subway out of the corner of my eye,…
By BIG RED Friday December 14th, 2007 Candid snaps from a Big RED night on-the-town at the opening of Boston University Student Patrick Short’s BFA exhibition. Patrick Short’s Website