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SOMEWHERE IN DREAMLAND Looking at Will Cotton’s paintings remind me of cartoons; or one cartoon in particular. The Fleischer Studios Color Classic cartoon Somewhere In Dreamland (1936) is the epitome of Depression-era wish fulfillment. Two innocent, almost overly cute children are caught in dire poverty. Their mother is barely able to feed them; there appears to be no father. The children drop off to sleep after an inadequate meal and dream of a wondrous land of candy, everything they might want to eat growing right out of the ground for the taking.…
The Colombian artist Doris Salcedo has been trying since the 1980s to represent in sculpture the experience of trauma and violence. The plainness of her works, made of simple everyday objects, such as shoes and chairs, belies the intense experiences that each represents. The pieces evoke, through material and mass, the violence endured by people in the ongoing civil war in Colombia. In a quiet little corner of the ICA, a room has been set aside for a small group of sculptures by Salcedo. It is micro-retrospective, with each sculpture representing a…
Donald Judd was born on June 3, 1928 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. While young he spent a great deal of time on his grandparents’ farm, and his family moved a great deal—he lived in Omaha, Kansas City, Des Moines, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Westwood, New Jersey all before he graduated from high school. His first private art instruction came at the age of ten. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1946 and served in Korea as a Corp of Engineers construction foreman, where he developed an interest in architecture.1 After being honorably…
The photos that Francesca Woodman created during her short life (1958-1981) are at once striking and subtle, often provocative but also playful. There is a constant character of exploration that defines her production. Among all of the concepts Woodman plays with in the work, there are two shared traits that seem particularly pre-eminent: the dual themes of transformation and disappearance. These traits are present throughout much of her work, but more specifically, in the images she created of herself. This fact has caused many viewers to question the relationship between her often…
Unable to attend the opening of the Museum School MFA Thesis Exhibition at Tufts University Art Gallery, I saw the show on a rainy evening last week. Alone save for a few other visitors, I was relieved to find that each of the artists included, Case Hathaway-Zepeda, Paul Ishii, Ryan Kish, Liza Lynch, Vanessa Michalak, John Neylan, D.M.H. R.I.C.H.M.O.N.D. X, were each allotted ample, separate exhibition space. Each of the theses on view here are autonomous and comprehensive bodies of work. Each are fully articulated expressions of an idea or conceit.…
Wednesday night the MFA and Big Red & Shiny were proud to present the Odd Spaces panel discussion at the MFA Boston, following the group exhibition of performance art curated by Liz Munsell, assistant curator of contemporary art and MFA programs. We all feel the days events were a success and we can’t thank you enough for being present with the performers and our panelists David Levine, Kate McNamara, Sandrine Schaefer, and Tony Schwensen, and the curator of the exhibition and panel moderator Liz Munsell. The back-story to the Odd Spaces panel,…
Let’s face it: if you need a 2D artwork that can endure extended exposure to sun, rain, wind, and “direct engagement” in various forms by wildlife, children, and the random flung object, you won’t be calling on watercolors or drawings, and oil paintings will just laugh derisively if you ask them to stand around outside for more than a few hours at a time. No; unless you’re looking for murals or street art, a photograph’s your obvious choice for this mission. Where other popular 2D media beg off right away, whining…
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 Wednesday May 15* Photo: Daniel S. DeLuca. Sandrine Schaefer Ghandi’s Flame, 2012 Museum of Fine Arts, Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston Panel Discussion, co-presented by Big Red & Shiny and the MFA:Odd Spaces Odd Spaces Performance Art Even and Panel Discussion will launch the MFA’s new performance art program, involving the Boston arts community in a discussion on this new initiative,…