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1. We don’t know who reads us! Occasionally we see a comment on social media, a retweet, or a message. But we have thousands of readers! Who are you? 2. We want to respond to readers’ needs and wishes. How can Big Red & Shiny best serve you? Do you even like us? (Don’t make us cry.) 3. We’re looking for fresh ideas we haven’t thought of yet. Chances are you have one. 4. We can already tell from the responses coming in that this is worth it! 5. Survey (below) won’t…
I’ve got mushrooms on the brain lately. Fall is a good season for them; they seem to spring up everywhere after a good rain moistens the dead leaves. I spend a lot of time in the fall walking around in the woods scanning for choice edibles and medicinals. I’m not the first artist to do so; there have been a lot of artists who have been interested in mycology. John Cage was probably being chief among them. “Nothing more than mushroom identification develops the powers of observation” he would say. Personally, I…
Every week, BR&S picks out a series of gallery events, screenings, exhibitions, performances. Here are our choices for you to go & see this week: • • • Events • • • Tuesday November 12 John Divola, Zuma Beach, 1977—78 BR&S’s Clint Baclawski’s Pick! MassArt, Tower Auditorium, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston Photography Lecture Series: John Divola 2pm / Free • • • • • • • • • • Thursday November 14* Boston University, CFA Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Ave, Boston Lecture: Janine Antoni “Janine Antoni is a contemporary artist working in…
These terms: Interactive Interdisciplinary Installation Process-Based Participatory Site-Specific Each in its own way makes my head hurt and collectively make me want to back quietly and slowly out of the room. Here’s an idea based project of mine called Attendant, that qualifies for the use of all of these terms, from the past year. All idea based interdisciplinary (add terms – whatever) work, including my own strike me at times, as a little ridiculous and overwhelming. When I reach that tired point, I just draw for a while and give the big…
Over the last twenty-three years, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has enjoyed a lasting, reciprocal relationship with French artist Sophie Calle. While exhibiting work at the ICA/Boston in 1990, Calle took an interview with Parkett magazine in front of one of her favorite paintings, the Gardner’s The Concert by Jan Vermeer. A short time later, that painting was cut from its canvas and removed by burglars dressed as Boston Police officers on March 18, 1990. When she learned of the theft, Calle phoned Gardner Director Anne Hawley to offer her condolences. “Her…
In my continuing exploration of art’s role in the branding of Boston as an “innovation hub,” I was eager to speak with Boston artists. While the diversity of artists working in Boston makes it nearly impossible to construct a comprehensive portrait of artists’ perspectives, I wanted to consider the range of Boston’s art making in contrast to much of the innovation hub rhetoric, which refers only vaguely to artists and other “creative workers,” often implicitly privileging certain forms of art over others. To this end, I asked artists working in a range…
Welcome back to Studio Sessions with my guest this episode, Russell Nachman. Russell earned his BFA from Colorado State University in 1990, and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996. In recent years, Russell’s focus has been on creating pieces that incorporate black metal figures into compositions that directly reference ancient Christian documents. While the work uses a very confrontational mix of imagery, his interest lies more in creating images that contemplate the state of western civilization. Previously he created works with a similar interest, but at the time…
Every week, BR&S picks out a series of gallery events, screenings, exhibitions, performances. Here are our choices for you to go & see this week: • • • Events • • • Thursday November 7 Photo: ©Vivian Maier Brandeis University, Women’s Studies Research Center, Epstein Building, MS 079, 515 South Street, Waltham, MA Turning the Wheel: The Emergence of Women Artists A panel discussion with: Kristen Gresh, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Assistant Curator of Photographs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Laura Prieto, Professor of History and Women’s and Gender Studies, Simmons College,…