artscope magazine: November/December 2008

Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor

Brian Goslow, managing editor (bgoslow@artscopemagazine.com)

Welcome Statement, November/December 2008

Welcome to our second expanded year-end issue of artscope magazine. While it would be naïve to ignore the current economic downturn and its potential, and in some instances already devastating affect on the galleries, museums and institutions we cover, there’s been at least one enthusiastic result this fall that bodes well for the arts long term.

Thanks to New England’s emphasis on building a strong creative economy in recent years, more people then ever are attending fairs, festivals and open studio events to pick up one-of-a-kind gifts for the holidays and to develop personal art collections. In mid-September, thousands of people flowed through the galleries and booths at the South End Open Studios in Boston and the stART on the Street Festival in Worcester, to name a couple. As you plot your holiday shopping, check out this issue of artscope for details on other wonderful opportunities to pick up quality gifts made in studios close to home – and help the local economy.

Also watch for holiday shows on our New England campuses, where the work of prominent alumni can be purchased alongside that of students just starting to make names for themselves. While there, check out the current exhibitions; this issue reviews shows at MassArt, Harvard, MIT, Simmons, Mount Ida, UMass-Amherst, Brown, RISD, Bowdoin and the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown.

We always try to call attention to fresh artists and galleries and in this issue, we’re proud to introduce you to Luis Villanueva and his Colo Colo Gallery in New Bedford through the writing of Sarah E. Fagan. Her profile is joined by Taryn Plumb’s glimpse of Hartford artist Balam Soto’s “Ofrendas 3: Day of the Dead” exhibition at Colo Colo. Meanwhile, Hope Stockman visited Julia Featheringill’s Cambridge studio to get an early look at her “Indelible” exhibition at Carroll & Sons Gallery. The gallery opened in Boston’s South End earlier this fall.

Elena Sarni introduces us to Portland mainstay Andres Verzosa, whose mentoring of artists at Aucocisco Gallery has played a key role in that city’s downtown revival, as has Susan Maasch Fine Arts, which will be getting one of the last shots at our outgoing president through Kelly Jo Shows’ “Bushwacked” exhibition.

Keeping with the belief that the true spirit of the holiday season is best felt while helping others, Roanna Forman profiles the Longwood Symphony Orchestra and previews its December 6 concert to benefit Artists With Alzheimer’s.

The winner of this month’s centerfold contest is Daniel Coury, whose untitled photograph offers an elegant look at the banal. Thanks to our judges: artscope writer Minying Tang; Paula Tognarelli, Deputy Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography; and artscope’s associate publisher Christy Woods. And don’t miss our special best-ofthe-rest section, featuring cover and centerfold contest submissions from the past 12 months. For our March/April 2009 third anniversary issue, we’re looking for submissions of work in the encaustics medium. Full details can be found in the classified section in the back of this issue.

As the year comes to a close, we’re hoping you’ll share your thoughts on our magazine and our coverage of the visual and performing arts in New England, so we can continue to evolve in 2009. Please take a few minutes to fill out our reader’s survey at artscopemagazine.com and be entered to win a one-year subscription to artscope.

Thanks for your readership and support in 2008.

Letters to the Editor

Dear artscope magazine,

I’ve already received a couple “Nice article” comments from friends about Franklin W. Liu’s story on the Roslindale Open Studios. Many thanks and keep up the good work.

Erik Gehring

Dear artscope magazine

Thank you for printing the “American Dream: Sally Curcio and Jeff Vespa” article on our show at Wunder Arts in Amherst, which Greg Morell wrote for the September/October 2008 issue. What a treat it was to read Greg’s insights and impressions of my work. I’m glad he was brave enough to come visit my studio after seeing my earlier blood work. It made me laugh to read about it.

Sally Curcio

Dear artscope magazine

Thank you very much for the “Zine Art” article. With the Lowell insert and the Zine article, 119 is basking in a flash of fame. How can I get many more copies of artscope? They were gobbled up at the reception last week and open studios weekend is next week!

Regards,
Mary Ann Kearns
119 Gallery, Lowell, MA

Dear artscope magazine

It is such a pleasure to share your wonderful magazine with my students at Mount Ida College. It is not only a perfect representation of just what is available for them to help enrich their educational programs but it also enhances the vision of how art is so very much a part of the New England lifestyle.

Not only does the content prove invaluable but your magazine is also a representation of how a magazine should be put together both visually and editorially. In addition, nearly all your advertising clients have a link to the arts making even the commercial efforts a great example of how advertising presentations can be tastefully and beautifully executed. They are great graphic examples to share with students. Kudos to your staff.

Maralin Manning
Mount Ida College, Newton, MA

Dear artscope magazine

Complimentary copies of artscope’s September/October 2008 issues were on display at the Tang Museum on the campus of Skidmore College in Saratoga, New York. I found it to be an interesting, informative magazine, featuring artists and diverse forms of art, a centerfold and beautiful pages of fine quality ads for art galleries, exhibits and schools. artscope has a dynamic appeal offering something for everyone.

Elena Collins
Schenectady, New York

Tara Donovan

James Foritano

Institute of Contemporary
Art/Boston

100 Northern Avenue
Boston

Through January 4, 2009

"THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS" IS A MAXIM WHICH ANTICIPATES, UNCANNILY, THE ARRIVAL OF TARA DONOVAN ON THE ARTS SCENE AND, PRESENTLY, AT THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS ON OUR FAIR HARBOR. YOU HAVE TO GO, IF ONLY TO SEE JUST HOW EVOCATIVELY, HOW UNIQUELY, EACH "WHOLE" BUILT BY DOVOVAN AND HER CREW DIFFERS AND YET REFERS BACK TO THE SINGULARITY OF THE ITEMS THAT COMPOSE IT.

Who knew that toothpicks, those straight pins, could be amassed into waist-high cubes with perfectly flat sides and tops and neatly creased edges? The third cube in the opening room of the exhibit, composed as it is of tempered glass in sheets, seems less counter-intuitive. Still, the three together are a tour de force of engineering formally elegant structures from commonplace parts - and with simple physical laws more often than glue or staples holding them together.

As the viewer moves from room to room, these structures continue to intrigue us not only with their elegance and ingenuity, but also with their paradoxical beauty. How, one asks, can simple translucent drinking straws or plastic cups or paper plates or buttons, be transformed into such wondrous figurations?.

This question is ever-present to the viewer because the “wholes” Ms. Donovan envisions and constructs are never flashy or finished enough to conceal their parts. As bulbously theatrical - now risible, now threatening – as are the hanging shapes in the penultimate gallery, we are always aware, even as we are responding to such different moods, that all the theater of “Untitled” comes out of the mouths of disposable Styrofoam cups, perfectly round or squished together into an infinity of deformations, somehow cohering, cheek-by-jowl.!

Another reason to come to this exhibit is to enjoy the bare minimum of description on the wall labels – “cue cards,” if you will. Most, if not all of the components of Donovan’s sculptures, are deeply familiar to us from sight if not from daily use. And the wall labels inform us patiently and laconically that, yes, what you are looking at are indeed buttons, plastic cups, straight pins and toothpicks. Finally, we become educated enough to look closely and to guess before we run to find out what we already know.

But, here again, it’s what we don’t know that is as important as what we do know, and Donovan is enough of an artist, of a shaman, even, to present us with commonplace sights that continuously overwhelm our expectations. Buttons, for example...t

Juan Angel Chavez: Speaker Project

Brian Goslow

Massachusetts College of Art and Design
621 Huntington Avenue
Boston

Through November 22

WITH ALL THE ACTIVITY ON THE CAMPUS OF MASSART, YOU'D EXPECT AN EXHIBITION ENTITLED "SPEAKER PROJECT" - ESPECIALLY IN THIS AGE OF UNAVOIDABLE AURAL ASSAULTS - TO BE OVERWHELMING. THE PLEASANT SURPRISE IS WHAT AN ENGAGING , PEACEFUL EXPERIENCE IT ACTUALLY IS.

While Juan Angel Chavez’s found object constructions may use the images of speakers to pull you in – and, in fact, the parts of this exhibition that resemble speakers do cause you to ponder what makes the real ones work - the affect they had on me was of transportation to a small, quiet, country-town setting where you go out for a walk and come upon a longneglected structure holding clues to its vibrant past. You might have another kind of engagement with the work, as Chavez invites you to tap on all of its pieces and explore the sounds they’re capable of making.

You can practically climb into the speaker that greets you at the top of the Paine Gallery’s second floor stairs, its multi-layers casting you back to the first time you took apart a radio or tape player to see what was inside. Its adjoining walls are made out of dozens of orange traffic cones stamped “People’s Energy” and a gigantic, 10-foot wide metal mesh covered speaker, similar to those that assault you in bass-heavy dance clubs.

The real magic occurs on the piece’s fourth side, where you’re invited through a door with a silver Mobil Pegasus handle. Once inside, you feel you’ve entered someone’s sacred space - or an abandoned corner store from down south, built of whatever lumber was available, its weathered green planks warm and nostalgic while the fresh plywood is cold without a history to share. Shelves hold old glass medicine and tonic bottles of various colors, which also instill nostalgia, strongly bringing the viewer back to a time when speakers weren’t an infringement on space, but an invitation to travel through it. Only a small sound system reveals any connection to today.

JULIA FEATHERINGILL: INDELIBLE

Hope M. Stockman

Carroll & Sons Gallery
450 Harrison Avenue
Boston

Through December 20

DELIGHTFULLY LIGHT-HEARTED YET SURPRISINGLY FORMAL, JULIA FEATHERINGILL'S MAGNIFIED FOUND-DOODLE MARKER DRAWINGS ARE BOUND TO LEAVE SMILES ON VIEWER'S FACES AT THE CARROLL & SONS GALLERY THIS FALL. "INDELIBLE" FEATURES NINE WORKS TRHAT BURST WITH COLOR, ENERGY AND HUMOR. THE SHOW WILL BE ON DISPLAY THROUGH DECEMBER 20 IN THE SOUTH END'S COBBLE-STONED JEWEL OF A GALLERY, WHICH WILL ALSO BE SHOWING WORKS BY OTHER ARTISTS WHO - SIMILARLY TO FEATHERINGALL - PUT AN INTERESTING TWIST ON EVERYDAY THINGS.

While Juan Angel Chavez’s found object constructions may use the images of speakers to pull you in – and, in fact, the parts of this exhibition that resemble speakers do cause you to ponder what makes the real ones work - the affect they had on me was of transportation to a small, quiet, country-town setting where you go out for a walk and come upon a longneglected structure holding clues to its vibrant past. You might have another kind of engagement with the work, as Chavez invites you to tap on all of its pieces and explore the sounds they’re capable of making..

ANNE HARRIS: SELECTED WORKS

Sarah E. Fagan

Nelson Gallery
179 Newbury Street
Boston

Through November 29

"BEYONG LIKENESS." "WITHOUT LIKENESS." PORTRAITS; MORE THAN SKIN AND BONES." The titles of some of the shows Anne Harris has exhibited in provide clues as to the artists intensive an internationalized approach to portraiture.
Select portraits: old and new, drawings and paintings, are the feature of Harris’ November show at Newbury Street’s Nielsen Gallery.

The artist has a special connection with Nielsen; it was the gallery that first asked Harris if they could represent her back in 1993, shortly after she had participated in a summer show. Harris has a strong presence in the northeast today. Though she grew up in the Midwest, the artist gained an MFA from Yale University in 1988 before relocating to Maine, where she lived and taught for seven years. “Most of my career developed in New England,” said Harris, now a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago who dreams of moving back to the northeast in the future.

Wherever she calls home, Harris has always been devoted to a unique and at times mysterious brand of portraiture. When I look at “Blonde,” or “Black Dress,” I wonder: would I recognize these people if I passed them on the train? Are they abstracted beyond recognition, or is this exaggeration the very element that makes them realistic? I am reminded of an old riddle: you are stuck in a labyrinth with two guards blocking your path. One can tell only the truth, the other only lies. How do you figure out which is which? Are Harris’ portraits brutally honest, or crafty compositions?

“The word ‘realistic’ is tricky,” Harris told me. Though she uses a mirror for selfportraits and faces of acquaintances as inspiration for her work, she questions how well any of us can really know a face – even our own. “I’m more concerned with the person in the drawing or painting being emotionally real,” the artist claimed. If that means relaxing complete control and allowing the face in the painting to take on a life of its own, so be it. Harris’ portraits are a mix of observation and invitation. One part of the artist studies the reference hard. The other lets intuition take over and listens to the artwork on matters such as where hands, hair and gaze “belong.”

Adel Abdessemed: Situation and Practice

Brian Goslow

MIT List Visual Arts Center
20 Ames Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Through January 4, 2009

ALGERIA-BORN, PARIS-BASED ADEL ABDESSEMED CALLED THIS EXHIBITION OF THIS PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS A MINI-RETROSPECTIVE OF STREET ACTION IN FRANCE, WHICH EXPLORES POWER AND VIOLENCE. "IT'S ORGANIC, LIKE BRINGING TOGETHER PIECES OR A DREAM OR MOLECULES THAT WERE DISPERSED BACK INTO A BLOCK," HE SAID AT A PRE-OPENING TALK. "IT'S LIKE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIA COMING TOGETHER, THEN EXPLORING."

There’s a young woman in a burka veil staring out, her vibrant black eyes revealing her soul; a tiger snarling in a public area; and a person being held horizontally on a sidewalk. Then there’s the shot of someone being dangled from a helicopter. That someone turns out to be Abdessemed, carrying out what he calls a street act, as opposed to performance art, the term most associated with these kinds of work.

“Helikoptère” (2008) is documented by video of a gigantic wooden panel mural being created in black chalk as Abdessemed’s hands flail away, reaching out for the wooden canvas as his body sways. The actual work recalls cave art.

ENTANGLED: JANE HESSER, DOROTHEA VAN CAMP AND MARC VAN CAUWENBERGH

James Foritano

Trustman Art Gallery
Simmons College
300 The Fenway
Boston

November 12 through December 17

"Entagled" is an apt title for the works of three artists whose own entanglements in the complex interplay of process and concept afford us as viewers a rich experience, at once sensuous and cerebral, seductive and disturbing

Jane Hesser’s photographs are perhaps the boldest illustration of the title of this exhibition. Using an old large-format view camera, she brings us up close to what could be tangled nests of hair or twisted branches of some twiggy bramble. If our eye focuses on the innumerable crossings of these branches/ hairs trying to quantify and simplify them into a schema, we can easily feel lost and frustrated. But, if we allow ourselves to explore the depth of field with both our eye and our imagination, we can experience a pleasing fluidity of movement, a seductive ambiguity of essence.

Hesser’s brambly nests recalled to me the folk tale of “Brer Fox.” In the version I read as a child, enemies who intended to do him ill captured Brer Fox. Trussed and trundled along in their hands, he pretended to be so discomforted by the sight of a nearby briar patch that they threw him in. But Brer Fox ran off between the brambles, crowing, “I was born in de briar patch!” We experience in Hesser’s work both the pretended fear of Brer Fox at the impossibly tangled and thorny briar patch and also his sense of freedom as he instinctively threads his way between its homely intricacies in a leaping run.

RYAN WALKER: THE RECYCLER

Hope M.Stockman

The Gallery at Mount Ida College
Carlson Hall
777 Dedham Street
Newton, Massachusetts

Through December 78

AT FIRST GLANCE, RYAN WALKER'S WORK LOOKS LIKE TRASH THAT'S BEEN GLUED TOGETHER AND SUSPENDED FROM THE CEILING. IN ESSENCE, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HIS SCULPTURE IS. HOWEVER, THE CAREFUL ARRANGEMENT AND FASTENING OF TEXTURES AND COLORS IN WALKER'S FOUND OBJECTS IS WHAT MAKES HIS SCULPTURES COMPELLING. NOT ONLY DOES HE USE FOUND MATERIALS THAT HE'S PICKED UP OFF THE STREET, BUT HE RECYCLES HIS OWN WORK AS WELL. HE OFTEN SHOWS SCULPTURES IN ONE INCARNATION, CUTS THEM UP AND USES THEM AGAIN, THEREBY CONNECTING HIS PIECES TO ONE ANOTHER THROUGH THE ACT OF RECYCLING.

“Not to personify the objects I work with,” Walker explained, “but I like the continuity of the recycling process in art. The more forms an object takes over its lifetime, the more experience it has. The more detail that goes into it over time, the more idiosyncrasy it gets.” For example, “Permanent Vacation II” (which is not named after Aerosmith’s comeback album, Walker will have you know), a large piece hanging in the back-right corner of the gallery, is primarily comprised of smaller, older sculptures born anew in this massive hanging form. “Time and my intervention with the material through recycling is what dictates the life of a piece,” Walker said. This is also one of his few titled works, as he believes that people’s immediate associations shouldn’t be colored by titles.

THOREAU RECONSIDERED

Roanna Forman

Concord Arts Association
37 Lexington Road
Concord, Massachusetts
Boston

Through December 7

In this show, 11 contemporary artist respond to Thoreau's writings on nature. Not surprisingly, trees - singly, grouped or in landscapes and collages - dominate this exhibit. Only one piece contains a human being, that being a lone figure in K.K. Kozik's "Shelter Rock" who read a book comfortably by a blazing fire under a gigantic snow-covered rock. Otherwise, the only human presence in each work is the artist who created it, their artwork analogous to one of Thoreau's meditative essays.

Visually turning Thoreau inside out, Ellen Harvey created the darkened view of a decaying garden behind a banister. Photographing an exterior view of the garden and railing, she incised lines on the backs of mirror panes and reflective Mylar in a woodcut-like technique. The natural vegetation overwhelms the architectural ornamentation, highlighting what mattered to Thoreau. Only one light-box illuminating the panes was brought to Concord, but the original installation was viewed in an entirely black space.

"LATER THAT NIGHT..." NOCTURNAL IMAGES BY CHRISTIAN WAEBER

Minying Tan

Panopticon Gallery of Photography
502C Commonwealth Avenue
Boston

Through November 17

CHRONICLING EVERY PLAY OF LIGHT ON BOSTON'S SIDEWALKS, TRASH HEAPS AND OTHER MANMADE LANDSCAPES, CHRISTIAN WAEBER'S WORKS CONVEY HIS ENDLESS FASCINATION WITH THE CITY.

LOSSLESS: A VIDEO INSTALLATION BY REBECCA BARON AND DOUGLAS GOODWIN

Brian Goslow

Through December 7

PAUL CHAN: THREE EASY PIECES

November 6 through January 4, 2009

Carpenter Center of the Visual Arts
Harvard University
24 Quincy Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

THE SUCCESS OF VIDEO EXHIBITIONS USUALLY DEPENDS ON TWO THINGS - A STORYLINE, WHETHER REAL OR IMAGINED, THAT A VIEWER CAN ATTACH TO, AND VIEWERS WITH IMAGINATIONS CAPABLE OF CONSIDERING WHAT THE WORKS' CREATOR SWEEK TO DO WITH THEIR ART.

In the case of “Lossless,” patience is definitely rewarded. Rebecca Baron and Douglas Goodwin’s work utilizes film footage found on the Internet. Instead of seeking perfect copies, they learned how to affect the download process as if they were playing a Theremin, interrupting the streamed data to distort or disfigure the shape of the images; further distortion occurs in transferring the material from computers to DVD or 35mm film format.

“Lossless #3” utilizes western movie scenes from John Ford’s “The Searchers,” its characters distorted so that their shapes seem to have been built out of Lego blocks. As your eyes and mind adjust, the more distorted the image - be it a horse splashing water as it gallops through a brook or cowboys swinging their rifles in the air - the clearer the actions become.

“Lossless #5,” a downloaded Busby Berkeley musical extravaganza, will really play with your mind – especially if you’re unaware of what you’re looking at. A split-screen of mirrored images resemble snakes, until the images shift to recreate the inside of a kaleidoscope. Then, the true identity of the image is abruptly revealed: mannequinlike synchronized swimmers performing their exercises on waterless ground. It’s all quite trippy and demonstrates how willing many of us are to form conclusions before we have all the facts. Think of it as a personal Rorschach Test.

The subjects of Paul Chan’s exhibition are much clearer, whether based in reality or animation.

THE WINNER'S CIRCLE: ANNA ISAAK-ROSS, YANICK LAPUH, GREGORY WRIGHT

James Dyment

Brush Art Gallery & Studios
256 Market Street
Lowell, Massachusetts;/br>

November 9 through January 11, 2009

Organized by Creative Director E. Linda Poras, "The Winner's Circle" focuses on three artist whose devotion to their work had brought them to a new level of sophistication. Winners of the Brush Art Gallery and studio Members' Juried Exhibition earlier this year, Anna Isaak-Ross (first prize), Yanick Lapuh (second prize) and Gregory Wright (third prize) are a circle of artists, or triangle, that will command your attention.

Luis Villanueva and Colo Colo Gallery

Sarah E.Fagan

25 Centre Street
New Bedford, Massachusetts

WHEN LUIS VILLANUEVA FIRST EXHIBITIED HIS WORK AT A VIRGINIA GALLERY IN THE 1980S,HE WAS NEWLY IMMIGRATED TO THE STATES AND AT THE BEGINNING OF A BURGEONING ART CAREER.

Now an established painter whose work is collected in big cities around the U.S., Villanueva has added “art dealer” to his resume, helping others get their start. Over the summer, he became the proud owner of a gallery of his own invention, the Colo Colo Gallery, located in downtown New Bedford. Its exhibition lineup for the coming year includes work by Guatemalan artist Balam Soto, Russian ceramicist Yelena Sheynin and New Bedford sculptor Erik Durant. Part of his plan is to represent women, minority, and generally underrepresented or undiscovered artists.

Villanueva, who grew up in Chile and moved around before settling in the States, knows how difficult it can be to get a foot in the door. Upon moving to New Bedford

RISD'S NEW CHACE CENTER BRIDGES THE DIVIDE

Meredith Cutler

The long-awaited Chace Center at the Rhode Island School of Design opened to the public on September 27, adding 43,000 square feet of sophisticated, mixed-use space to bridge key areas of RISD's eclectic campus with the public arena of Providence's Market Square.

The Chace Center
North Main Street
Providence, Rhode Island;/br>

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect José Rafael Moneo, the five-story, LEED certified facility offers the entire community muchneeded programming and educational space to be shared by the RISD Museum, risd|works, The Minskoff Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs, the new Gelman Student and Dryfoos Student Media Galleries, and expanded office, studio and classroom facilities.

Industry Focus: THE EXPOSURE PROJECT

Franklin W.Liu

The Boston-based Exposure Project is a fine art photography collective founded in 2005 by four principal artists of diverse talent: Ben Alper, Anastasia Cazabon, Eric Watts and Adam Marcinek. The collective has just selfpublished its third book of contemporary photography featuring their latest work, as well as showcasing that of other members. The collective also curates and mounts gallery exhibitions while hosting a vibrant online forum fostering community interest in contemporary photography.

Ben Alper and Eric Watts’ photographs deal with realism in examining the American urban landscape. Alper concentrates on the visage of Main Street storefronts and residential yard scenes adorned with lawn ornaments. From a farther vantage point, Eric Watts shows compelling images such as a weed-sprouting, lonely stretch of asphalt leading to a sprinkling of buildings in a manufacturing neighborhood.

Adam Marcinek and Anastasia Cazabon’s artworks offer separate and distinct notions of truth and secrets surrounding precious, personal, early life memories. Drawn by time and nostalgia, Marcinek documents his family’s store and the interior of his home. In “Helen’s Bedroom,” a floral patterned bedspread covers a well-made bed pushed against a similarly patterned wall, dominated by a large crucifix overlooking the bed; a soothing light permeates the room. In “Lucille’s Room,” a close-up image shows a potted plant resting on a simple bureau surrounded by small plastic and ceramic statues of the Virgin Mary. God and the Holy Trinity’s presence reign. The images illustrate that religion is the central foundation of countless American homes. In these telltale pictures of rustic reverence, Marcinek said, are four composite elements of truth in his upbringing - quiet, lightness, simplicity and history. It is an interior monologue delivered with a straight forward, stream-of-consciousness.

Cazabon, like Marcinek, alternates between using a medium format Hasselblad and a larger 4x5 camera to retain clarity of details critical to her 16”x 20” (when mounted for gallery exhibition) prints. But the similarity of their art ends there.

KAREN DOLMANISTH

Greg Morell

AN ARTIST THAT BOLDLY EMBRACES TOTALITY WHILE MINIPULATING THE COMPLEXITY OF THE MINISCULE, KAREN DOLMANISTH'S CREATIVE WORK DEFIES CLASSIFICATION AND CHALLENGES EXPLANATION.

“I love my art, but it terrifies me,” Dolmanisth said in a public talk immediately following her on-site performance, ritual and dance on October 14th, which culminated her 10-day outdoor installation at UMass-Amherst entitled “Life Lines of Connection and Continuity.”

As her quiet voice echoed off the monolithic cement walls of the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center overlooking the campus pond, hundreds of wallowing geese chorused a rise and fall of soundscape that accompanied her performance and post performance talk.

Herman began collecting lists seven or eight years ago, without any specific intention. She calls herself a “natural archivist,” and thinks of this process as an ongoing apprenticeship with “people who get things done” and a personal learning experience of how to organize her own life.

Dolmanisth’s homage to autumn consisted of an expansive matrix of long strands of string and woolen cord tethered to the peaks of tall walls. Cascading down and across the plaza, the white lines were anchored by river rocks covered with moss and lichens. On those long strands of wind blown fiber, thousands of tiny leaves were strung in measured lengths, sorted by color in strands of red, yellow and gold.

Her installations are typically finalized by performance. At UMass, her performance commenced with a dance of homage to the setting sun and the directions of the compass. Her movements were a blend of Tai Chi

PAUL CLANCY

Meredith Cutler

City Unconventional: Providence’s photo-archeologist continues his search for the soul of a building.

When I first arrived in “Downcity” Providence one Saturday in July, 2007, Paul Clancy was the first person that I encountered. I remember this clearly, because the sunlit movie set of this hauntingly beautiful, yet so often underserved urban streetscape was utterly deserted.

With the art-deco “Superman Building” towering overhead, there was something disquietingly postapocalyptic about the summer scene. I ducked into the then brand new AS220 Project Space

BALAM SOTO

Taryn Plump

Don't expect to find him in an art supply store

For native Guatemalan Balam Soto, art can’t be limited to canvases, paints, clays, molds or even large-scale installations. It is just as relevant in the natural, the intangible and the unexpected: water sluicing through channels. Endless strings of computer coding. Electronic music mimicking graceful human movement.

“Art is evolution,” said 38-year-old Soto, who develops new platforms for his craft in his Hartford, Conn. studio and is now showing at New Bedford’s (Mass.) Colo Colo Gallery, from November 1 through the 28th. “It is important to see different kinds of art and to be exposed to a different kind of thinking.”

That’s not to say that the experimental artist completely spurns traditional forms. The crux of his work has been paintings and murals, the latter of which adorn the Hartford Public Library and Hartford City Hall, among several locations throughout

THREE TO WATCH IN 2009: MASSART/FINE ARTS WORK CENTER OF PROVINCETOWN GRADS NANCY WINSHIP MILLIKEN, LOUIS THEODORE OLLIER AND KATIE JURKIEWICZ

Taylor M. Polities

The Massachusetts School of Art and Design is in its fourth year of partnership with the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown for a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program, which includes a series of onsite residencies in Provincetown as well as coursework pursued in the artists’ home studios under the direction of an artist-mentor. The residencies build relationships between the student-artists and the town of Provincetown with its long tradition as an art colony.

“Several students from last year’s graduating class were picked up by the Schoolhouse Gallery and Alden Gallery,” noted program director Barbara Baker. But the artwork being produced in the program pushes in directions well beyond the traditional schools of painting for which Provincetown has been known. “There is a real diversity of artists coming in,” Baker said. “We’re getting people from a much broader geographic spectrum and each class is more non-conventional in their work.”

This September, a Provincetown-based exhibition of the program’s second graduating class reflected that trend of diversity in style and media. The 12 graduating students explored works in oil and watercolor, printmaking, digital media, video, conceptual art and installation, textile sculpture and sewing, collage, organic sculpture and more. Many artists found themselves encouraged by the program to explore beyond the traditions of two-dimensional oil on canvas work.

Western Massachusetts-based Nancy Winship Milliken entered the program painting in oil. “Then I moved into three-dimensional photography,” she said. “The program is open to complete experimentation.” Milliken also began work on a series of intriguing and beautiful small sculptures for her thesis. She employs viscera, abdominal organs of animals from local farms, along with other natural materials like wax, honey and wool. Some of the viscera are inflated and dried, forming opaque, meandering tubular structures. Others are photographed filled with a fluid like honey that make them take on the

CENTERFOLD CONTEST OUTTAKES

Christy Woods

Once again, the expanded edition of artscope allows us to show off selections from the incredible submissions we’ve received over the past year. Some of the images you will enjoy were taken from the “top five” lists of past judges and others are the result of artscope’s staff having its turn to play…

ANDY WARHOL:POP POLITICS

Rick Agran

Currier Museum of Art
150 Ash Street
Manchester, New Hampshire

Through January 4, 2009

“Pop Politics” represents an amazing slice of Andy Warhol’s artistic legacy: his political and personal portraiture. The show offers an intriguing look at celebrity and personal power, either as simple gloss or through myriad interpretations. Much is left up to the beholder. To the casual viewer, it is a galleryful of brightly-colored headshots, aptly curated, and for those willing to immerse themselves in American art and history, a study in pop culture’s image appropriation for artmaking, a cultural collage of the powerful.

Warhol used found images produced by the same culture they commented upon. He lifted from newspapers, foreign propaganda, Time and Life magazines, advertisements and political PR. He blew up stock images into large prints he could manipulate using commercial silk-screening processes, tools and print sizes. He monochromed or multiplied colors, modified palettes, hand painted with flourishes, and added lines and doodles. He introduced text into images to invert meaning. Warhol even impregnated painted surfaces with diamond dust at the other extreme of subtlety. “Pop Politics” is a rich study in mark making, layering and color use.

We see Warhol use color’s power to transform images and their meaning in the campy-kitschy “Red Jackie” (1964), which renders her as a sexy, chirpy cartoon. “Pop Politics” is super bright. The sad are made happy with color; evil is laid bare with color; the “commies” become real

CHIHULY AT RISD

Meredith Cutler

BALANCING THE ACADEMIC INSTITUTION'S "ART STAR" ROSTER WITH PUBLIC APPEAL, DATE CHIHULY WAS A SAVY CHOICE FOR THE INAUGURAL EXHIBITION IN THE RISD MUSEUM'S EXPANDED SPECIAL EXHIBITION SPACE. AS A PIVOT POINT FOR THE $43 MILLION DOLLAR CHACE CENTER'S GRAND OPENING, "CHIHULY AT RISD" BRINGS THE EXPRESSIONIST GLASS-ART INNOVATOR AND RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN GLASS DEPARTMENT FOUNDER HOME TO THE FOLD WITH GALLERY INSTALLATIONS REDUX, AND PROVIDES A SEGWAY TO SPOTLIGHT THE CAREERS OF SOME OF CHIHULY'S BRIGHTEST STUDENTS DATING BACK TO HIS TENURE ON RISD'S FACULTY.

Entering the 4,007 square foot special exhibitions space, the visitor is immediately confronted with a billboard-sized view of the artist’s signature, emblazoned in acid-green vinyl directly on the custom painted, neutral gray wall. This particular shade of gray does not flatter “Persian Ceiling,” a modestly scaled version of the glass-bottomed, sculptural ceiling riots he has installed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and other notable institutions. While the delicate auras emitted by the marine-life inspired glass platters and vessels clustered overhead are truly lovely, the potential impact of light’s play through transparent color is diminished by the absorbent properties of the wall treatment.

This same hushed hue, applied to the custom-built, S-curve wall bisecting the gallery, plays far better with the following works. Nestled on an obsidian platform, “Mille Fiori” evokes a subterranean organic ballroom, balancing the implied movement of black fronds struck through with shocking chartreuse against the crackling surfaces of frozen spheres. Presiding with icy emotion over this eerie landscape, a smoke-gray pendant chandelier absorbs as much light as it reflects.

Tripping down memory lane, the revisited installations “Neodymium Reeds” and “Glass Forest #4” play the syrupy medium of glass off of its material earthly opposites – in this case, solid, felled birch trees and electrified neon gas. It wouldn’t be a Chihuly show without excesses of beauty and scale, and these pieces

BESSIE POTTER VONNOH: SCULPTOR OF WOMEN

Taryn Plumb

Florence Grisworld Museum
96 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, Connecticut;/br>

Through January 11, 2009

It is the immortalizer of the gallant, the victorious and the mythological: generals flashing swords. Soldiers hoisting flags in victory. Greek gods and goddess dignified and elegant in their nudity. But to American Impressionist sculpture Bessie Potter Vonnoh, bronze could be tender, humble, textural and abstract.

With it, she crafted busts of mothers cascaded with fabric and nursing infants, less fortunate caregivers hunched with babies in the cold, sleeping children, and demure sprites exposed in ethereal skirts. Thus, at turns, her sculptures are lovely, touching, free spirited and sobering.

“There’s a warmth to bronze that you don’t have in other media,” noted Amy Kurtz Lansing, curator at The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Conn., which is hosting the first exhibit dedicated to the influential female sculptor. “It can translate a lot more of the texture imparted by the artist, it can preserve movement.”

Vonnoh capitalized on the material’s rich qualities; she is celebrated for her intricacies, such as folds of gauzy fabric, willowy hair, shades of smiles on mothers’ faces and innocently seductive

BUSHWACHKED: KELLY JO SHOWS SAYS GOOD-BYE TO BUSH IN SEVERAL MEDIUMS

Elena Sarni

Meeting Kelly Jo Shows is a disarming experience. Her sweet nature and laid-back personality is a stark contrast to her reputation as a controversial artist. More aptly, I would describe her as an artist who creates controversial work. Shows admitted that she doesn’t shy away from contentious issues. She has explored hot button topics including religion, politics and sexual orientation. In her artist’s statement, Shows explained that her goal has always been to “open the lines of communication.” She clarifies that her intention “has never been to throw my [her] personal views in your face, but to get you to dig deeper and look at the fundamental issues.”

Shows, a native Texan, graduated from The Art Institute of Houston, Texas with a B.F.A. While living in San Francisco for many years, she made a name for herself with 2D and 3D mixed media work mainly consisting of painting and sculpture. She moved to Maine in 2000 and by 2003, her work began to appear in Portland galleries. Today, Shows is a valued member of the community and generously donates her work to local charities to raise money for animal shelters and other worthy causes.

In 2007, Shows gained representation by the wellesteemed Susan Maasch Fine Arts in Portland, Maine. Susan Maasch explained that her curatorial mission “is to use art as a vehicle for telling a story, often a story about social and progressive ideals.” She thought that Shows would make a good fit. Maasch first saw her work at Sanctuary Arts, an alternative art space next-door to her own gallery. “I immediately liked it and found it strong and well crafted,” Maasch recalled. She’s full of praise for Shows’ “fabulous rendering skills” and her work’s “gutsy message.”

“Bushwhacked” has been evolving for a few years. One of the show’s key pieces is the large, striking “Sympathy of the World.” Being a collector of popular culture items, antiques and found objects in general, it was not unusual that Shows saved a copy of the Portland Press Herald from September 12, 2001, the day after the attacks on our nation. This newspaper copy has become an integral part of a piece she described as speaking “to the mishandling of one of America’s most tragic events.” Above the newspaper headline “Act of War,” Shows has painted

Jules Olitski: An Inside View

Paula Melton

Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
10 Vernon Street
Brattleboro, Vermont

Through November 16

THROUGH PAINTINGS BY RENOWNED COLOR FIELD ARTIST JULES OLTISKI HANG IN COLLECTIONS AROUND THE WORLD, OLITSKI'S SILKSCREENS, LITHOGRAPHS AND MONOTYPES ARE LESS KNOWN. BUT THEY ARE FAR FROM LESSER. IN FACT, SOME BELIEVE THEY REPRESENT HIS FINEST WORK. THE BRATTLEBORO MUSEUM AND ART CENTER, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OLITSKI'S DAUGHTER, LAUREN OLITSKI POSTER, HAS GIVEN THESE PRINTS SOME MUCH-NEEDED BREATHING ROOM.

The exhibition traces a chronology of Olitski’s printmaking, starting with the earliest etchings from the mid- 1950s and ending with the waterbased monotypes, the last of which he completed two weeks before his death in February 2007. Aside from a seven-foot-square acrylic (“Yellow Hoodoo,” 1965 and 1987) that glimmers from the staircase as the viewer steps through the front door, the oeuvre comprises smallto- medium-scale work on paper. The earliest work includes several uncharacteristically dark etchings, like “Untitled #2 (State One)” from 1956-57, whose expressive black and burnt sienna markings are more reminiscent of Pollock than they are of Rothko.

The main gallery features lithographs and silkscreens from the late 1960s and early 1970s exploring some of the same motifs as Olitski’s acrylics of the same period. The ghostly lithographs use a two-plate print as a kind of misty, gray-green canvas that Olitski hand-embellished with crayon and ink. In the slightly later silkscreens, the colors become both brighter

THE ALLURE OF ITALY: PHOTOGRAPHY, FASION DESIGN SINCE 1945

Chet Williamson
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Fitchburg Art Museum
185 Elm Street
Fitchburg, Massachusetts

Through January 4, 2009

FROM THE MASTERFUL PHOTOGRAPHS OF NEO-REALIST NINO MIGLIORI TO THE FAMOUS FASHIONISTAS OF ARMANI, DOLCE & GABBANA AND VERSACE, THIS EXHIBITION, WHICH REACHES OVER THE ARC OF MORE THAN 50 YEARS OF ITALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY, FASHION AND DESIGN, REPRESENTS A WHO'S WHO OF ARTISTS THAT REDEFINED ITALY AS A MAJOR CENTER OF MODERN ART AND DESIGN IN POST-WORLD WAR II EUROPE.
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While offering an encompassing overview rich in detail, content and quality, “The Allure of Italy” satisfies without overwhelming. Curator of Collections Kristina Durocher and Photography Advisor Stephen Jareckie have successfully curated an exhibition that effectively captures the allure of Italy in all its inspiring beauty.

Photographs ranging from the aforementioned Migliori to Massimo Vitali’s “Venezia Corandoli, 2007- 2008” - a seven-foot long scene of New Year’s Eve - are included in a collection of more than 50 images by Franco Fontana, Mario Giacomelli, Paolo Monti, Ezio Quiresi and Paolo Ventura. Also included is work from outsiders who, Jarecki said, share the “commitment to defining the character of the Italian people and their country.”

ELIZABETH KING: THE SIZES OF THINGS IN THE MIND'S EYE

Chet Williamson
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David Winton Bell Gallery
List Art Center
Brown University

64 College Street

Providence, Rhode Island

November 1 through December 21

LIGHT MOVES GENTLY OVER ELIZABETH KING'S SELF-PORTRAIT AUTOMATION IN "EIDOLON," A LARGER THAN LIFE VIDEO PROJECTION ON THE DARKENED GALLERY WALL. POSSESSING THE CAREWORN WRINKLES OF TIME, HER INDIVIDUAL EYEBROW HAIRS GONE AWRY, THE CLOSE-CROPPED SUBJECT GAZES OFF-SCREEN WITH AN AIR OF VAGUE CONCERN. SLOWLY, SHE TURNS HER LIQUID STARE TOWARDS THE VIEWER. THE MOMENT OF EYE CONTACT IS ANTICIPATED, THAT FLASHPOINT WHERE HUMAN RECOGNITION OCCURS THROUGH THE "WINDOWS OF THE SOUL"...BUT SOMETHING IS NOT QUITE RIGHT.

As the light shifts to illuminate the subject’s eyes, wide and misleadingly lifelike, the pupils remained fixed - frozen apertures within unseeing glass orbs. In that moment, the viewer is reminded that this implied human presence is merely an image of a carefully manipulated puppet, created with light projected onto a wall.

Photographs ranging from the aforementioned Migliori to Massimo Vitali’s “Venezia Corandoli, 2007- 2008” - a seven-foot long scene of New Year’s Eve - are included in a collection of more than 50 images by Franco Fontana, Mario Giacomelli, Paolo Monti, Ezio Quiresi and Paolo Ventura. Also included is work from outsiders who, Jarecki said, share the “commitment to defining the character of the Italian people and their country.”

WORKS BY DOZIER BELL, LAUREN FENSTERSTOCK AND ALICE SPENSER

Elena Sarni
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Aucocisco Gallery
613 Congress Street
Portland, Maine

November 5 through 29

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PARTERRE:
AN INSTALLATION
BY LAUREN FENSTERSTOCK br>

Bowdoin College Museum of Art
9400 College Station
Brunswick, Maine

Aucocisco Gallery owner Andres Verzosa is often seen looking up from his desk to exchange greetings with familiar Portlanders passing by on the sidewalk. His dog Arrow has become an equally loved and regular fixture of Portland, perched in his favorite window of the 1928 building. Verzosa, who prefers to simply to be called Andy, has operated Aucocisco since returning to his native Portland in 2000, after living and working in New York City. The gallery fills three consecutive storefronts in the historic Congress Street Building, or State Theater Building, in the heart of Portland’s Arts District.

In November, Aucocisco showcases work by three exceptional artists. Skowhegan-trained and Maine native Dozier Bell’s work was recently shown as part of the “Transcendent and Sublime” group exhibit at Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University Gallery of Contemporary Art. The Gallery invited four artists to explore concepts of the transcendent and sublime, which the exhibit’s accompanying essay defines as “extreme states that exist beyond the limits of ordinary comprehension.” In celebration of the new University Chapel, the artists were asked to explore these concepts and their meanings in modern day society. Bell’s haunting large-scale acrylic paintings reflect the enormity of space and the suffocating feeling of stretching darkness, intermittently broken up by the illumination of stars and galaxies.

In October, Bell participated in New York City’s famed Art Students League’s “Art From Anxious Times” group show. Her work was viewed alongside

TWISTED

Alexandra Tursi
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FLYNNDOG
208 Flynn Avenue
Burlington, Vermont;/br>

November 7 through December 30

AT FIRST GLANCE, WYLIE GARCIA AND JAKE RIFKIN COULDN'T BE A MORE DISPARATE ARTISTIC GROUPING

Garcia recently completed her MFA at MassArt and studied photography at the University of Chicago; Rifkin is self-taught. She comes from a background in textiles and apparel; he created mechanical parts for a metal works company while nursing a penchant for physics. While the former approaches her work though study and observation of the everyday world, the latter succumbs to spontaneity, designing as he builds his pieces.

The duo, good friends who both currently work in the south end of Burlington, desired collaboration for years. They finally have the opportunity with a joint show at FLYNNDOG to cap off 2008.

Garcia is inspired by the mundane and everyday way fabrics record memory and existence. During a recent residency at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China, the density

lONGWOOD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Alexandra Tursi
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Artists for Alzheimer's Benefit Concert
Jordan Hall
New England Conservatory
30 Gainsborough Street
Boston;/br>

December 6 at 8 p.m 7

Founded in 1982, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra has 120 musicians, 80 percent of whom belong to the medical community. Honored for its achievements with the 2007 American Symphony Orchestra League/ MetLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement, its medical professionals all carve out practice time for conductor Jonathan McPhee’s demanding repertoire. Each has different reasons for playing: contributing to the orchestra’s community service mission, finding stress release, or interacting as musicians outside of the medical setting. Others say playing for medical causes deepens their sense of purpose for practicing medicine.

“I was absolutely driven to join this orchestra,” Susan Paulker said. She learned violin in adulthood, having taken some lessons as a child. “I was playing with a community group, and I heard there was going to be a concert called ‘Reverence for Life’ in honor of Albert Schweitzer’s efforts in Africa. He was a physician who combined music with his mission.” Schweitzer, an organist, Bach scholar and theologian, was a musician first who later became a doctor. “I just worked my tail off, to come up to speed and to be able to join the orchestra for that concert,” Paulker said. “It was one of the highlights of my life, playing with Yo Yo Ma and Lynn Chang.”

The duo, good friends who both currently work in the south end of Burlington, desired collaboration for years. They finally have the opportunity with a joint show at FLYNNDOG to cap off 2008.

Garcia is inspired by the mundane and everyday way fabrics record memory and existence. During a recent residency at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China, the density

The Music Hall

Elena Sarni
br>

28 Chestnut Street
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Boston;/br>

Being a New Hampshire Seacoast native, my first trip to The Music Hall was as a child in the 1980s to see Broadway’s “Peter Pan” starring Sandy Duncan, the mother from the television sitcom “The Hogan Family,” as Peter Pan. I was in awe for days at how Ms. Duncan had swung from the cracked, white plaster ceiling, seemingly within reach of my balcony seat.

The Music Hall, built in 1878, is the oldest surviving theater in New Hampshire. After being named a “National Treasure” in 2003 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the 900-seat theater underwent major renovations. Owners of historic properties can learn a valuable lesson from The Music Hall’s successful combination of period-correct preservation and modern updates. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner might have thought twice about building a new Yankee Stadium if he had known that since being named a “National Treasure” and beginning renovations, The Music Hall’s live performance ticket sales have increased by 90 percent.

The theater is tucked down a side street in the scenic town of Portsmouth, NH, which was recently named a “Distinctive Destination” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Music Hall continues to be one of its main attractions, upholding a tradition of offering cultural events for children, music lovers, film buffs and theater aficionados. The last of four old-time Port.

The last of four old-time Portsmouth theater venues, The Music Hall always had the reputation of being the most ornate, and renovations during the last few years have returned the theater to its early grandeur. They’ve revealed a magnificent ceiling dome painting and gilt cherubs

Capsule Previews: November/ December 2008

Brian Goslow

The Eighth Annual Small Works Exhibition to benefit the Maud Morgan Visual Arts Program and Center features works by over 50 Cambridge artists available for purchase through December 5 at the Agassiz Baldwin Community Center, 20 Sacramento Street in Cambridge. The 12” x 12” works come in a variety of media, including sculpture, stained glass, jewelry, oil, photography and watercolor. “It’s a pleasure working with such a wide array of talented artists here in Cambridge,” said coordinator Anne Hayland. “It’s a true showing of their continued generosity to participate year after year.” Agassiz Executive Director Terry DeLancey echoed that sentiment.“We so appreciate the support of our Cambridge artists. Their work helps keep art alive in our neighborhood.”For directions and hours, call (617)349-6287.

Works by over three dozen artists from around the United States will be available for purchase November 7 through December 21 at the First Annual ITTY/BITTY Invitational at the YES Gallery + Studio, 146 Water Street in the historic district of Warren, Rhode Island. Participants include Andy Warhol gravestone designer Trey Speegle, California textile artist Sarah Symes and San Francisco printmaker Macy Chadwick. All works are 9” x 9” or smaller and cost less that $495; proceeds will benefit the Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts advocacy organization.

Former Chase Gallery director Stephanie Walker opens the doors of Walker Contemporary Gallery at 450 Harrison Street in Boston’s South End on November 7. Her gallery roster was culled through visits to art fairs, galleries and studios around the U.S., with the goal of presenting outstanding contemporary sculpture, painting and installation in an inviting and friendly space. Jennifer Davis, John Dempcy, Susan Dory, Elisa Johns, Kazuo Kadonaga, Jae Ko, Dharma StrasserMacColl, Don Maynard, Meg Brown Payson and Anne Siems are amongst those featured in Walker’s inaugural show.

Generation X filmmakers take the spotlight at this year’s Boston Jewish Film Festival, which presents 46 independently-produced films from November 5 through 16 at nine Greater Boston locations. Executive Director Sara L. Rubin said now that the “Nevermind” children of the 1990s are in their 30s, instead of avoiding responsibility, they’re looking for life’s meaning and bringing a fresh perspective to age-old issues facing the worldwide Jewish community. She called special attention to three documentaries being screened on November 9: “The Woman of the Thousand Voices” presents the tale of Israeli mothers who’ve lost children to war as told through the words of Israeli poet and artist Ruth Dorrit Jacoby. “Thousand Voices” filmmaker Amram Jacoby will be on hand to discuss his work. “Miss Universe 1929: Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Wueen In Wien,” Péter Forgács’ telling of the first truly global beauty pageant, will also be shown at the ICA. and “Pauwels Circus (Sous le chapiteau des Pauwels),” Agnes Bensimon’s look at the Belgian-Jewish performance troupe with origins dating back 125 years, will be shown at the MFA, where the filmmaker will talk about the small circus and the family that keeps its tradition alive. Full schedule and ticket info can be found at bjff.org.

A black and white exhibition of six young printmakers from Rhode Island College will be held from November 8 through 30 at Firehouse No. 13, 41 Central Street in Providence. Assistant gallery director Jarrett McPhee said recent RIC grad Eric Hoffman explores the world of engraving with a gorgeous sense of line while Julian Robinson’s comic book background becomes molded into the fine art realm. Lithographic photorealistsLindsey Beaudreau (polite, yet “in your face” self portraits) and John McCaughey (cryptic work walking the thin line between graphic art and realism) compliment Crandon Whitsitt Lynch’s obsessively complex lines and patterns, and the woodcut prints of Darrel Perkins, which combine a deep understanding of compositional organization and graphic street art.

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo may have died in 1954, but her ability to create important work despite being devastated by polio continues to inspire today. “The Kahlo Legacy: Contemporary Women’s Self Portraits,” works by Susan Hauptman, Sophie Jordin, Tina Newberry and McArthur Grant award winner Anna Schuleit, can be seen from November 10 to January 6, 2009 at the Spheris Gallery, 59 South Main Street in Hanover, New Hampshire. Simultaneously, the gallery’s lower level will feature works by eighth graders from the “Inner Landscapes” program at Great River Arts, a nonprofit arts institute in nearby Bellow Falls, Vermont. Great River Arts hosts a screening of Amy Stechler’s documentary film, “The Life and Anna Schuleit, Calling Hannah Wilke (panel 3), 2007, acrylic, colored pencil, charcoal on paper. Times of Frida Kahlo,” on December 3 at the Lowe Theater at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art. A panel discussion featuring Ms. Stechler will follow the screening. Landscape painter Paul Pedulla was one of my favorite discoveries at September’s South End Open Studios Weekend. One of his works, “Sentinels Slice” will be featured in the juried Sentinels of Parson’s Beach exhibition, which runs through November 24 at the Heartwood College of Art, 123 York Street in Kennebunk, Maine. “The ‘Sentinels’ are actually a majestic group of trees at Parson’s Beach in Kennebunk, which are often the subject of paintings by Kennebunk/ Kennebunkport artists,” Pedulla said. “I often paint out of my head so this show represents a departure from that because my piece is clearly representational. But it’s still quite unique, just 10 inches wide but 30 inches tall.”

Generations: Works by Jun Kaneko and Toshiko Takaezu continues through December 6 at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy, 11 Tan Lane in Exeter, New Hampshire. Curtis Fontaine (a 2004 Phillips Exeter grad) co-curated the show spotlighting the two ceramic superstars. Hawaiiborn Takaezu studied with Maija Grotell and spent eight months in Japan in 1955. During this time, she immersed herself in Japan’s culture, Buddhism and traditional pottery; the results still resonate today in her vessel-shaped works and heart-melting colors. Born in Japan and based in Nebraska since 1986, Kaneko’s abstract “dumpling” works have found homes in 50 museums and take ceramic art to new territory through a growing mastery of the bronze, glass, drawing and painting formats.

Pakistan-born Huma Bhabha was the winner of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum’s 2008 Emerging Artist Award; an exhibition of her works can be seen at the museum at 258 Main Street in Ridgefield, Connecticut through February 8, 2009. The show’s centerpiece is “Bumps in the Road,”a large figurative sculpture made of clay, wood, wire, Styrofoam, metal studs, acrylic paint, cast iron, burlap, newsprint, sand and ash. Some of her works, which she likes to call “landscapes of human debris,” are the result of rescuing discarded materials. “Using a disparate array of materials, she creates figurative objects that simultaneously reference Egyptian, Greek, and Indian sculpture, while recalling modern and contemporary works by Giacometti, Guston and Kiefer,” said curator Merrill Falkenberg in the show’s press release. Equally, if not more mesmerizing, are Bhabha’s colorful works on paper.