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Every week, BR&S picks out a series of gallery events, screenings, exhibitions, performances. Here are our choices for you to go & see: / / / / / / / / / / / / Wednesday June 25 2014 Regina José Galindo, Marabunta (Ants), 2011 The Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts Regina José Galindo: Big Bang In June 2009, the automobile industry giant General Motors filed for bankruptcy amidst the market crash already taking effect in the United States. The fall of this transnational corporation deepened the financial…
Over 100 people gathered at Lesley University on Wednesday June 4 to talk about “How We Get By.” Organized by Matt Kaliner, Tim Devin, and Jason Pramas, the event was billed as “a group exploration of how artists earn their money for living and creative expenses,” and featured a panel of 10 local artists representing a diverse sampling of Boston’s creative community. Kaliner, a lecturer in arts and urban development at Harvard, kicked off the discussion by underscoring its firsthand and informal character, calling for “storytime and confessions.” Those stories ran…
Welcome back to Studio Sessions, this time with guest Helena Hsieh. Helena earned a BA from UCLA in 2004, a BFA in 2008 from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MFA in 2012 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Helena’s body of work is largely based in self-portraiture, and explores her identity and her relationship to the canonized art world. In other pieces she documents small moments of her life that define her personality and experiences. Listen as Helena provides some context on these pieces and…
Every week, BR&S picks out a series of gallery events, screenings, exhibitions, performances. Here are our choices for you to go & see: / / / / / / / / / / / / Friday June 13 2014 – Sunday June 27 Fitchburg Art Museum, 25 Merriam Parkway, Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420 Juan José Barboza-Gubo: Pink Narcissus Fitchburg Art Museum presents Juan José Barboza-Gubo: Pink Narcissus, a solo exhibition awarded to the artist as the first-prize winner of last summer’s 78th Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft. Barboza-Gubo enjoys the mastery of…
Let me introduce you to J. L. Austin1 and John R. Searle.2 These two guys were like my two best friends in college. Well, them and Stelarc, but Stelarc is kind of a weird guy . . . Anyway, if it wasn’t for J. L. and John S., I would have not have had as wide a sense of how meaning can be made in the world. The big thing that these guys turned me on to was how sometimes language and action are exactly the same thing. Like when I say…
Contemporary art is losing its sheen. This despite the fact that hyper-expensive, hyper-polished sculptures from the studio of artist Jeff Koons fetch double-digit millions from collectors clamoring for ownership of such “tchotchkes.”1 Koons and kindred blue-chip artists certainly believe the art world’s axis now tilts its appropriate way, though others find it askew. Art and wealth commingle like old pals, no doubt, as critic Philip Kennicott of The Washington Post laments, but now he believes the relationship has grown toxic.2 It appears the spotlight today rests upon art’s price tags, and the…
For many years I have been wrestling with the lack of forward momentum in the critical dialogue surrounding Painting.1 A condition that is somewhat unique to the discipline, since other media or métier2 have successfully evolved beyond the dated confines of a conversation involving medium-specificity. However, this is an issue that continues to bedevil Painting, as anyone even remotely engaged with contemporary art can attest. I aim to not simply call this matter to the attention of the reader, but hope to reinvigorate an intellectual and substantive discourse dealing with Painting today.…
1. The word “Utopia” was first coined by Thomas More in his 1516 manuscript of the same name. More, a prominent philosopher and statesman who was eventually beheaded for treason by King Henry VIII when he refused to break with the Roman papacy and accept Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, wasn’t the first thinker to play the parlor game of designing a perfect society, but he may be its most famous. The title of the book has become a byword for any community that attempts to fashion…