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There are those pieces of writing that you are so grateful exist. I remember my excitement the first time I read this conversation between Kaja Silverman and George Baker; the excitement in now knowing that someone out there is conceiving of the world and our experience in these terms, terms that resonate so clearly. Here is a small excerpt from Primal Siblings published in ArtForum a couple years back: Kaja Silverman An analogy is a relationship of greater or lesser similarity between two or more ontologically equal terms—a corresponding with, rather…
“Poïesis is etymologically derived from the ancient Greek term ποιέω, which means “to make”. This word, the root of our modern “poetry”, was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poietic work reconciles thought with matter and time, and man with the world.” (Wikipedia) PORTRAIT OF LARRY RIVERS (WITH WRIST BANDAGES) – After Fairfield Porter, 1951 The day is one of Larry’s images where half the page is line and the other looms and spreads. This sunshine state…
There has been a lot of talk about the Foster Prize lately, which is better than no talk at all. In the process of putting my thoughts about the whole thing into some sort of shape, I came across a bit of writing by Jon Blackwood about biennial culture. Even though he is talking about former Yugoslavia, it feels to me like he might just as well be talking about Boston here: “In a society where all but a tiny percentage of people active in culture live from week to week,…
The Art Institute of Boston’s low residency graduate program culminates this year in two group shows (one on each campus) featuring 15 artists. As a low residency program, it attracts established artists who have both life and studio experience, but have reached an impasse where they wish to push their work in new directions. The work here is not obviously “student” work, but is quite polished, and represents a wide-open field of media and concepts, directly relevant to current art world and cultural concerns. Comprised of painting, video, drawing, sculpture, projection,…
TEN YEARS, 2013, Self Portraits by Katrina Umber made 2002 through 2012. See more here. This quote by Trinh T. Minh-ha has been with me since undergrad: “There will be much less arrogance, much less it-goes-wihout-saying assumtion, much less taken-for-granted dominance of the first-world-third-world/man-woman relationships, if the making subject is always vulnerably exposed in his or her making process.” What are the limits, possibilities and fruits of ‘the making subject’ being ‘vulnerably exposed in his or her making process’? Through my different bodies of work I continue to explore a fundamental ontological…
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 25 — Thursday 27 June Boston University, Kenmore Classroom Building, Room 101, 565 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University presents: ART TALKS June 25 | Angela Dufresne | The artist will discuss her work June 26 | Ken Lum | The artist will discuss his work June 27 | Valeska Soares | The artist will discuss her work 7—9pm…
The Westerly Public Library, in Westerly RI, resonates with old money and civic virtue, both of which can seem as quaint and bygone as the dinosaurs. It’s a mansion-sized pile, faced in yellow brick, dating from the 1890s, and backed by a beautiful swath of parkland. I was pleasantly surprised to find contemporary art nestled in the library’s Hoxie gallery, on the second floor, near the nonfiction stacks, where it was, though not as unexpected as a dinosaur, more welcome than one. In a library everything is controlled, so even the…
The Berkshires are well-known in Boston and New York for incredible natural beauty as well as a vibrant arts and culture scene. Mount Greylock is the highest point in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at approximately 3500 feet, and overlooks the former industrial towns of North Adams, Cheshire and Pittsfield. These once-prosperous towns depended on manufacturing, a profitable industry due to the area’s proximity to the Hoosic and Housatonic rivers and an abundance of cheap labor. The switch of industry in the USA during the 1970s and 1980s from manufacturing to service greatly…