Todd Brugman finishes smoking his tobacco pipe and begins to carefully layer golden-orange oil paint onto a strip of birch panel. The light sketches of geometric figures in front of him wait patiently to be filled by layer after semi-transparent…
Bryan Christie’s solo exhibition, Every Angel is Terror, offers tangible evidence that the categories we create for the sake of language—art, science, religion, poetry—dissolve at a point of convergence. On view at Matter & Light, this exhibition grasps at what…
Anna Kunz’s Venus harbors classical ambitions—not only in its name’s obvious mythological reference but in its sweeping aspirations toward spatial, painterly beauty. It was apropos then that during my visit to Providence College’s Reilly Gallery, a band recital could be overheard…
Painters & Photographers, curated by Jamilee Lacy, starts the gears turning with it’s title. Are these paintings or are they photographs? Yes, most of the artists presented use traditional photo processes to create their images, film, camera, enlarger, etc., but…
A used bar of pink soap. The glowing face of an alarm clock. An open beer can. Door knobs. A utility van’s handle. These are some of the subjects of Anthony Palocci Jr.’s straightforward yet enigmatic series of small paintings…
This September, painter Ariel Basson Frieberg fearlessly explores figure painting through two striking gallery shows: Ariel Basson Freiberg: Trespass Daughter at Howard Yezerski Gallery (September 8–October 10), and Reconfigure with fellow Boston-based painter Lavaughan Jenkins at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (September…
“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” is comprised of five young artists, hung along the narrow walls of Sulloway & Hollis law offices in Concord, New Hampshire. The unconventional setting provided meaningful context for the work presented here, all of…
When Matter & Light director, Ian Corbin, describes his life’s origin, it is almost unbelievable. This, in part, is due to his aesthetic: he’s on the couch in the back of the gallery finishing up an email on his MacBook…
Earlier this spring, Ann Lewis drove from Detroit to Boston to create a four-story mural. This wasn’t just any mural. Lewis would paint the mural on a building in Boston’s historic South End and would work with residents of the…
A green, furry fiend lingers in the center of A Brief Case, one of Stuart Diamond’s latest paintings. Behind this Grinch-like ghoul, the scales of justice teeter on an elephant trunk, imperiled. A curtain of flame sizzles in the distance.…
Paranoia has a way of creeping up the spine and burrowing into the brain. Like a tick in the woods waiting for the right moment to latch onto its next host, it feeds—gorging itself on suspicions of falsehoods, naivety, and…
A sightline refers to a direct line of vision between spectator and an object in view, whether it’s the Washington Monument, a Broadway musical, or an NFL playoff game. To painter Dana Clancy, sightlines are a way to compose and…
DRAW/Boston, an exhibition of over 60 artists curated by Tomas Vu, toys with scale, color, style, and sound, wedding the scholarly air of a professional university gallery with the aesthetic resemblances of a working artist’s studio. The arrangement alone warrants…
“With my work I reaffirm black cultural values in the contemporary world.” – Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy, 1998 Curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, Diago: The Past of This Afro-Cuban Present at The Cooper Gallery presents Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy’s first…
Taylor Clough’s Is, And of The at Occam Projects features an assortment of paintings on canvas and paper, absorbingly and tauntingly saturated. Clough painted people as an undergrad, but her current sceneries are unpopulated. Though lacking in figuration, she paints…
Steve Locke has two concurrent exhibitions taking place at Gallery Kayafas and Samsøñ called “FAMILY PICTURES” and” SCHOOL OF LOVE” The two exhibitions, which are on view now and run through November 26th. We spoke recently. Robert Moeller: There is…
Jamaica Plain-based painter Josh Jefferson has recently received a lot of attention for his brightly colored geometric collages and head series. Jefferson will be showing his work at Steven Zevitas in the SoWa district on September 9 and has shows…
Located in Faneuil Hall, Boston’s tourism epicenter, Pat Falco’s newest installation seems at first glance like the busy hub of any political campaign. Boston Campaign Headquarters, as it is titled, is made up of signs, banners, hats, and pins featuring…
Wilhelm Neusser and I first met in a roomful of paintings at an art auction. I asked him if he had a favorite of the works on view, and he began speaking about perceived intentions of many of the artists,…
In Marguerite Yourcenar’s essay, “That Mighty Sculptor, Time,” she speaks of the “involuntary beauty” of ruined sculpture from the ancient past: …statues so thoroughly shattered that out of the debris a new work of art is born: a naked foot…