Newest Features
Curiously familiar symbols on aged paper greet the viewer of Rich Cali’s Poor Moon exhibition (on view through Oct. 24) at The Mingo Gallery in Beverly, MA. His work, made while on a cross-country journey from Texas to Massachusetts, plays with loaded imagery such as the scythe and the Christian cross, as well as more abstracted geometric symbols inspired from folk art, native American spirituality and Christianity. Other symbols commonly used in his work are more culturally generic, such as islands, trees and snakes. He uses a stark palette; they are mostly black and…
Out of the darkness they come, like Orpheus blinking into the light, or that mob of dead souls called up by Odysseus to drink from a puddle of blood. The subjects of these photographs are all, or most of them, ghosts by now. But when Donald Blumberg made these visual records at the front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York between 1965 and 1967, the ancient usages of veil and formality that once marked the Catholic faithful were still intact. The black door behind these figures is not simply a backdrop…
As we rapidly approach tomorrow’s Big Red Shindig, we want to share with you work from some of the great artists we’ll be showcasing. This year we’re excited to partner with Kathleen Smith Redman, Exhibitions Director at the New Art Center in Newton, MA and Bridget Hanson Healy, Independent Curator, who are putting together a special selection of artworks—from a number of talented artists, many whom have been artists/curators for the NAC’s Curatorial Opportunity Program—for viewing during this event in our first pop-up exhibition titled Exchange Codes: Boston and Beyond. We can’t wait to…
There are only two more days until our fourth BIG RED SHINDIG, our annual fundraiser and celebration of the launch of our new website. Again with generous support from our friends at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, Panopticon Imaging, and Foodie’s Markets, and from our new friends at Horizon Beverage we’re inviting you to another evening of great art, music, and dancing. This year we’re excited to partner with Kathleen Smith Redman, Exhibitions Director at the New Art Center in Newton, MA and Bridget Hanson Healy, Independent Curator, who are putting together…
“Boston Common” highlights the people and organizations that shape Boston and New England’s cultural sector by going straight to the source to find out who they are, what they are doing, and how and why they do it. We hope that the interview series will champion some of the exemplary work being done, shed light on neglected issues facing our arts scene and community, build connections among individuals and organizations, and expand the networks on which we rely. In our newest installment, we talk to Boston Cyberarts Director and independent curator George…
Corita Kent and the Language of Pop is a tight survey, focused primarily on the work Kent and other pop artists produced in the mid-1960s. This span of time also maps onto Vatican II, the Catholic church’s ecumenical council that met from 1962 to 1965 to update the church for the modern world. It’s a historical moment that best demonstrates Kent’s position as both an artist and a member of a religious order who united these huge cultural shifts in a practice that supported her own religious life while she worked to…
Artist Samuel Rowlett, whose work mines the relationship between studio practice, community engagement and exploration, is hitting the streets today with his mobile portrait painting studio. Taking inspiration from peripatetic painters of the 19th century who roamed the rural Northeast, Rowlett will be walking through the Newtonville neighborhood between 11am-8pm as part of his piece Itinerant Painter. Previously performed last year at Nuit Blanche Toronto and in 2013 across New York City in an exhibition for Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Itinerant Painter sees Rowlett backpacking to locations with a collapsible painting studio and painting free portraits…
“There’s nothing simple about getting back to nature.” Steve Locke, who curated Arcadia: Thoughts on the Contemporary Pastoral at the Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, began his gallery talk with this cautionary statement, and a gift for each of us. He made postcards of the painting that inspired the exhibition, Et in Arcadia Ego, by Nicolas Poussin. In it, three shepherds come across a tomb in an ancient, pastoral setting. A shepherd kneels to trace his shadow on the tomb’s wall with rapt amazement. An attractive, classically robed woman, embodying…