artscope magazine: September/October 2008

Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor

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

Welcome Statement, September/October 2008

the past two months, a great deal of attention in the artscope office has been devoted to assisting Gallery XIV with the promotion of its “a politic” exhibition. The show was co-curated by Gallery XIV, artscope and Reflect arts, Inc., and garnered a large amount of coverage thanks to the inclusion of Ron English’s "Abraham Obama" mural on the temporary wall outside of the gallery’s South End doors. The mural hadn’t been on display for 24 hours when “copycat” versions of the work turned up throughout the area, infuriating some and kicking up the age-old “what is art?” question with others.

The show – and Boston – benefi fited from an international spotlight, with coverage of the controversy appearing on CNN and MSNBC and in the Wall Street Journal. But more importantly, the exhibit got people right here in New England engaged in a timely dialogue; The Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, The Weekly Dig and others had good, bad and ugly things to say, and we embraced it all - this is about democracy, right?

Whether you thought the child-of Obama/Lincoln image was presumptuous, pandering, prophetic or just plain creepy, you probably thought something. And it seems that across New England, the upcoming election has us all thinking and has emboldened our artists to feed that hunger. Some of the results are featured in the following pages, including Jenny Holzer’s “Memorandum for Condoleeza Rice,” which can be seen at the Barbara Krakow Gallery on Newbury Street, and the “People’s Portraits of Bush” project at the Green Door Studio in Burlington, Vermont. The portraits may or may not, depending on the whims of a live audience that will see a performance art version of the work, meet a “fiery fate.”

Another is our sponsoring of the “Arts Affair on the Boardwalk” on August 2 and 3 in Quincy, Massachusetts, where our office is based. More details can be found in this issue’s Capsule Previews.

And, remembering that despite all the campaign posturing that often seems intent on avoiding any actual issues, we’re proud to feature a work from Luba Lukova’s “Social Justice” exhibition on our cover. The exhibit will be on view at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University’s Boston and Cambridge campuses through mid-October.

Also in this issue are several stories of world-inspired shows, including Esteban Pastorino Díaz’s “Shifting Perspectives” exhibition at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which features photographs taken by the Argentina-born Díaz in Spain, Toyko and Venice (and features the debut of writer Minying Tan in our pages). Also, glassmaker Josh Simpson’s planetary “Megaworlds,” featured in the “Perspectives and Visions” show at the Worcester Center for Crafts, take inspiration from Simpson’s travels over Iceland, Greenland and Russia.

This issue’s performing arts coverage features writer Roanna Forman putting on her dance shoes to find out how a club DJ (Susan Morabito) teamed up with two artists (Dustan Knight and Lauren Pollaro) to create a one-of- a-kind sound and vision experience at the Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown, while Rick Agran tells us how one recent New Englander has slowly built an innovative theater program in Maine.

Erica Harney, with her oil on canvas painting “Johnson, Vermont,” is the winner of this issue’s centerfold contest. Special thanks go to our judges Mark Moscone, Director of Exhibitions at the Rhode Island School of Design, Kristin Street, Director of the Krause Gallery at Moses Brown School and artscope writer Meredith Cutler. For our January/February 2009 issue, we’re looking for submissions of original works of sculpture. Full details can be found in the classified section in the back of this issue.

The months ahead promise not only fall’s spectacular show of colors, but a large number of open studio weekends and street fairs throughout the region, where you can engage local visual and performing artists one-on-one and see for yourself why we’re proud to be “New England’s Culture Magazine.”

Letters to the Editor

Dear artscope magazine,

Copies of artscope are placed at our reception bar area with a tabletop logo display beside them. The display has caught the attention of visitors to the gallery and people have noticed the beautifully slick cover, causing several in every crowd to pick it up and flip through. They ask about the magazine and seem genuinely enthused not only with the magazine but also that it is a complimentary copy - the gallery is forging relationships with these strangers who will hopefully become our next buyers. We thank you for providing the quality and caliber of artscope magazine, as well as supplying the gallery with copies.

Matt Doolin and Finn Yonkers, co-directors,
Gail Cahalan Gallery
Providence, Rhode Island

Dear artscope magazine

In my opinion, artscope is an intelligent, beautifully laid out publication, supportive of New England artists, many of whom often receive scarce journalistic coverage. I feel this aspect of the publication cannot be faulted. However I believe artscope could be improved simply by including medium and size information of artwork presented. I sincerely hope the editors will consider this vital addition to an otherwise excellent publication.

Adam Sherman
Visual art / music / design
Cambridge/Provincetown MA

(Editor’s note: We’ve taken this suggestion to heart and when available, we will include this information with the works featured in our magazine)

Dear artscope magazine

Thank you for James Foritano’s thoughtful and expressive review of our Off the Wall 2008 Annual Members’ Juried Exhibition. The piece was engaging and colorful. We are thrilled to have been included in this dynamic summer issue of artscope an and look forward to seeing you at the museum soon.

Jenn Harris
Assistant Director for Development & Marketing
Danforth Museum of Art

Dear artscope magazine

I work at th the Fogg Art Museum, and there is always an issue of artscope around the office. I enjoy reading about all of the current exhibitions and local shows. Thank you.

Jess Dugan
West Roxbury, MA

Arno Rafael Minkkinen: In Print

George Gerard

Robert Klein Gallery
38 Newbury Street
Boston

September 12 through November 15

THE HUMAN BODY IS A SUBJECT THAT MANY ARTISTS FEEL A DRIVING NEED TO INTERPRET. IT IS RELATIVELY EASY TO UNDERSTAND WHY; OUR BODIES PROVIDE A VAST ARRAY OF THEMES THAT BEG TO BE STUDIED. COMING IN DIFFERENT BUILDS AND SIZES, OUR BODIES CAN BE RESHAPED INTO SEEMINGLY AMORPHOUS FORMS AND CAN LEARN TO PERFORM IMPOSSIBLE FEATS OF PHYSICALITY. THEY ARE CAPABLE OF HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED COMMUNICATION AND CONTAIN COMPLEX PSYCHOLOGIES AND IMAGINATIONS.

For Arno Rafael Minkkinen, the body has been a point of fixation in his artwork. “For 30 years now I have been engaged with this single idea: to use my own body as a means to express our relationship to nature,” he said.

This exhibition, featuring works from recent publications, follows a theme that primarily delves into Minkkinen’s relationship with nature through the context of his Finnish home.

Kapoor has brought with him 15 friends, from the subtly self-effacing, but grandiosely titled “1000 Names” to the behemoth and eponymously named “Past, Present, Future.” In between are an assortment of pranksters and poseurs who clamor for our attention, playing shamelessly for an audience – and getting one!

Black and white, his work feels raw despite its polished aesthetic. This may be due, partly, to the way that Minkkinen has decided to articulate his relationship with nature. His photographs are often full nudes, or at the very least, nude limbs, torsos or faces, juxtaposed against the backdrop of a Finnish landscape. Often, he subjects himself to the harsh conditions that nature can present, which magnifi fies the simple idea of how important clothes are (or are not) in our lives. For Finnish people however, Minkkinen says, nudity is something that is more accepted from birth to death.

In Print draws mostly on photographs from Minkkinen’s latest book, “Homework: The Finnish Photographs 1973 – 2008,” in which he discusses a number of his infl fluences. One teacher in particular, Hugo Simberg, stands out in a philosophical exploration that Minkkinen’s photography resonates. Minkkinen says, “…Simberg seems to convey a similar yearning for reconciliation with nature. Unless religious belief guides our thoughts of afterlife, placing ourselves in the natural world may be the sweetest comfort to the certainty that no one lives forever.” Indeed, Minkkinen’s photos can remind us of our mortality, that our body is our own while alive, but

DressRedress

James Foritano

Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, Massachusetts

Through September 25

DRESSREDRESS IS A VISUAL CUPCAKE OF A SHOW THAT I PERAMBULATED IN ONE SENSUOUS LOOP. WHAT BROUGHT ME UP SHORT WAS A COMPLEX AFTERTASTE PLUS ONE OF MY ITALIAN GRANDFATHER’S FAVORITE MAXIMS: “MASTICATE YOUR FOOD.” THIS MAXIM SEEMED ACTUALLY PRESENT, BLINKING ON AND OFF IN THE AIR IN FLOWING NEON SCRIPT. THEN, I BEGAN LOOKING.

Lilliputian bodies are fit to wear Sandra Eula Lee’s miniscule shirts, t-shirts and socks, all meticulously cut of white paper and tipped in watercolor into the varied patterns and designs that first-world consumers demand. They stand in serried rows on the tops of columns which look to be stacked order sheets impeccably documenting this commercial largesse, viz: one bathing suit, red/navy reversible; 16 pairs of underwear, five white…etc.

Lee’s exhibit, at on once seductive and chilling, tempts us to lean in over these marching rows of clothes and direct them to our closets, and, simultaneously, to draw back from this imaginative regimentation. Where is the room for individual choice in this manufactory of choice?

My enjoyment of Aparna Agrawal’s exhibit “Body Armor” was likewise complicated by paradox. Glistening beeswax, cloth and pigments shape a small legion of garments that recall the on onsie worn by Agrawal’s first child when she was an infant. The openings of these on one-piece garments gape pathetically at the legs, neck and arms onto emptiness instead of onto a wriggling, seeking infant. Our adult empathies are sucked into these garments and we find ourselves filling their seductive spaces, testing their limits, while enjoying their

MATERIAL MEDITATION

Hope M. Stockman

New Art Center in Newton
61 Washington Park
Newtonville, Massachusetts

September 15 through October 26

MASTERS OF ECLECTIC MATERIALS, EACH OF THE SIX ARTISTS FEATURED IN THIS COLLABORATIVE INSTALLATION USES A COMMONPLACE MATERIAL THAT THEY MANIPULATE – BE IT BY SLICING, CHAIN-SAWING, PHOTOGRAPHING, STITCHING OR WEAVING – HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF TIMES TO CREATE FORMS THAT EXPLORE THE FRAGMENTS OF OURSELVES.

I sat down with three of them in this church-turned-gallery/studio to find out more about the fruition of this extraordinary show, its vision, and the unique space that will house these works. The energy in the room was palpable as they described each other’s work. Our conversation zinged from DNA strands to time and space, to a mythical tribe of piano people and a recent Radiohead show, all of which somehow fueled the inspiration behind the works that will be on display.

Channing Penna: Movingline

Sarah E. Fagan

Boston Public Library
Popular Reading Room
700 Boylston Street
Copley Square, Boston

Through November 30

For a Boston art-goer emerging from the Copley “T” Station, instinct may be to cross over a block from Boylston to Newbury Street. While exploration of the latter’s veritable gamut of galleries is often my own pursuit, on this rainy afternoon my route was different - it took me directly up the steps of the Boston Public Library. In a place where raised voices may merit the dreaded shushing finger from a librarian, I was searching for two unexpected qualities: movement and motion. DESTINATION: MOVINGLINE, DRAWINGS BY CHANNING PENNA.

It is not uncommon for some of the library’s space to be set aside for art exhibitions each season, and this fall, Penna’s collection steals the spotlight. An artist and ardent lover of pencils since youth, her black and white collection made with charcoal pencil and erasures captures what would happen if M.C. Escher’s creatures were to break free of their tessellations and come to life.

Having taken figure-drawing classes, I can attest that one of the more difficult concepts to capture with a drawing implement is movement. Simply making a human model seem like anything other than a stone statue takes something special. Penna not only adds literal motion to her work, but captures the moods of motions as well. The Newton, Mass. - based artist portrays the rhythms of nature in a group of 67 images that are no less than pulsing earth. The otherworldly undulations and curves of Penna’s series of waves recall not just the sight, but the taste, smell and sound of rising ocean tides. She reveals not only the snapshot moment, but also that feeling one gets when watching a flock of birds ascend, turn, twist and travel as one in the sky as if guided by some unseen maestro’s hand. Insinuated in this compilation is movement that is felt as well as seen.

Both setting and content make entering the exhibit not unlike entering a strange and wonderful labyrinth. Shelves of old books rise high above your head; huge charcoal spirals of nautili and tidal waves beckon your approach. The

Social Justice 2008 and Other Works: THE GRAPHIC ART OF LUBA LUKOVA

Sarah E. Fagan

The Art Institute of Boston

Main Gallery
700 Main Street
Boston

and

The Art Institute of Boston
Gallery at University Hall
1815 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge

September 4 through October 18

ONE WORD COMES TO MIND WHEN VIEWING THE GRAPHIC ART OF LUBA LUKOVA: CONFIDENT. HOW CAN GRAPHIC ART NOT BE CONFIDENT? WITH ITS BOLD, “STRAIGHT FROM THE TUBE” COLORS, INDIFFERENCE TOWARD SPATIAL LAWS AND ALLUSIONS TO POP CULTURE, GRAPHIC ART ISN’T SHY. LUKOVA, WHO HAS SPENT HER LIFE POPULARIZING THIS ART FORM, IS GETTING HER DUE IN NEW ENGLAND AT THIS MAJOR EXHIBITION AT THE ART INSTITUTE OF BOSTON OF LESLEY UNIVERSITY.

Born and educated in Bulgaria, Lukova attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. With little prospect for her art to fl flourish in the Communist nation, Lukova took her design skills and moved to New York as an adult, working in a Turkish laundromat as she developed what would become her enterprise. You may have seen her work in the public sphere before in the form of political or theatrical posters, or on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. These dual possibilities help illustrate the dual identity of graphic art: utilitarian and fine art in one. Lukova embraces this dual identity, but mourns the frequent relegation of graphic art to a lesser, commercial status. The compositions of her silk-screened prints and photographic graphics for book covers, posters and public awareness campaigns are planned as comprehensively as any painting, her messages deeper than much “art for art’s sake.”

Commissions are a big part of Lukova’s career, and have involved more than ads for off-Broadway shows. Key to AIB’s exhibition is the 12-poster series that constitutes “Social Justice: 2008.” This series was printed to bring economic, ecological and social crises to the attention of the public. With her universally understood visual metaphors, Lukova has become a speechwriting spokeswoman for social justice whose speech transcends language. “I want my work to say a lot by saying a little,” Lukova once stated. The images are brilliantly economic, yet witty and profound. A broken umbrella stands for “health coverage.” A flute player, fingers nailed into particular holes, forever able to play only one note?

NATURE & BALANCE 2008

Roanna E. Forman

Arsenal Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street
Watertown, Massachusetts

Through October 19

“NATURE & BALANCE 2008” TAKES YOU OOUTDOORS FOR A HALF-HOUR WALK AROUND THE CENTER’S GROUNDS, AND ITS 10 INSTALLALLATION ON PIECES ARE AS FULL OF SURPRISES AS THE ANTEBELLUM ITALIANATE COMMANDER’S MANSION, THE TRELLISED GRAPE ARBOR, AND THE FORMER AMMUNITION BUNKERS YOU’LL FIND ALONG THE WAY.

On the Center’s front lawn, Gillian Christy’s vertical stainless steel sculpture “American Dreams” narrows progressively from its approximately 4’ looped base base, symbolizing the difficulty of realizing one’s dreams. Joining replicas of rural picket fences and urban stairs toward a single top step, the piece is built to sway with the wind, and its artificial material is nevertheless harmonious with natural surroundings - green from grass, silver from stairway, and variability of sky.

Before you leave the front grounds, play a life-size version of “Mancala” by Linda Hoffman and Blase Provitola using Mexican river stones on a wood tabletop to imply th the flow of stones along a river. To win, collect the most stones in large bowl at either end of the board – remember doing this in summer camp with tiny seeds and a 12” version?

ZINE ART

James Dyment

119 Gallery
119 Chelmsford Street
Lowell, Massachusetts

October 14 through November 8

IN THIS AGE OF BLOGS AND ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING, LET US NOT FORGET THE OLD-FASHIONED PHOTOCOPIED PUBLICATIONS CALLED “ZINES,” OR “CHAOTIC VISUAL JOURNALS OF CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS FROM PARTICULAR PERSPECTIVES.”

The interesting thing about zines is how they defy classification. Often a combination of poetry, comic strips and short stories, this art form is much more personal than a blog. “There’s a feeling of the human touch which translates slates to person-to-person communication,”said Mary Ann Kearns, co-owner of 119 Gallery.

THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

Hope M. Stockman

Barbara Krakow Gallery
10 Newbury Street
Boston

Through October 7

FROM JENNY HOLZER’S IN-YOUR-FACE BLOW UP OF “MEMORANDUM FOR CONDOLEEZA RICE” TO SUARA WELITOFF’S SILENT, CONTINUOUSLY LOOPING CLIP FROM THE FILM “BLOW UP,” THIS EXHIBITION MAGNIFIES AND DISSECTS THE COMPONENTS OF CONVENTION THROUGH THE WORKS OF NINE ARTISTS. USING A RANGE OF MEDIUMS ON DIFFERENT SCALES, EACH ARTIST EXAMINES THE RULES THAT GOVERN LANGUAGE, POLITICS, UTILITY AND ART.

A shockingly red wall installation by the French-born stripe man, Daniel Buren, serves as the exhibit’s backdrop. A hand-painted black grid, in which random combinations of black-and-white striped squares challenge the convention and orderliness of the grid, overlies the red wall.

PERSPECTIVE & VISION:THE GLASS OF MARTIN ROSOL AND JOSH SIMPSON

Brian Goslow

Worcester Center for Crafts
25 Sagamore Road
Worcester, Massachusetts

September 18 through October 11

TRYING TO TOUCH BASE WITH JOSH SIMPSON PROBABLY GIVES ONE AS DIRECT AN INDIRECT ANSWER AS ONE COULD ASK FOR REGARDING THE INSPIRATION FOR HIS PLANETARY “MEGAWORLDS” GLASS WORKS. AFTER WAITING FOR HIM TO RETURN FROM A TRIP TO RUSSIA (WHERE THE COLORS OF ST. BASIL ARE AS MAGNIFICENT AS ANY ON THIS EARTH), WHICH FOLLOWED A VISIT TO ICELAND EARLIER THIS SUMMER, I CAUGHT HIM ON HIS WAY OUT THE DOOR TO TAKE A PILOT’S INSTRUMENT LICENSE TEST WITH AN FAA INSTRUCTOR. PUT TOGETHER THOSE THREE EXPERIENCES ALONE AND IT ALL BECOMES CLEAR.

Museum Spotlight: Fuller Craft Museum

James Foritano

455 Oak Street
Brockton, Massachusetts

I’VE THOUGHT OF MOUNTING THE FULLER CRAFT MUSEUM ON RAILS SO THAT EVERY TIME I THINK OF THE MUSEUM OR LOOK AT ITS WEBSITE FULL OF CRAFTY PERSPECTIVES, I COULD JUST HAUL IT IN TO CAMBRIDGE AND STEP ABOARD. AND YET, EVERY TIME I MANAGE THE QUITE REASONABLE COMMUTE TO BROCKTON, I’M REBUKED FOR MY LAZINESS BY THE ENFOLDING ENCHANTMENT OF THE SITE AND THE RICHNESS OF TREASURE IT ENFOLDS.

Go with a pod of friends, as I did on a Sunday in early August. It not only stretches fuel, but also enables you to meet the creative energy of the exhibits with the multiple interpretive powers you’ll need. We scattered like separate expeditions when we arrived, unable to walk a straight line from the parking lot over the land-bridge to the entrance, a bare 20 yards, because each of us was so captured by a special vista.

The diaphanous Leslie Wilcox sculpture wrapped around a tree trunk overlooking the pond intrigued me, while a friend was quizzing a regal column of a sculpture with her steady gaze before announcing that it was ceramic. Another friend, our dreamy one, was counting lily pads in the distance.

Some museums are all about proclaiming, with stentorian facades, the splendor of their indoor spaces. The Fuller, deconstructed, hugging its terrain, eying its vistas with expansive glass, is all about taking your time, enjoying the approach.

Inside was the usual gift shop stocked

Green Door Studio

Alexandra Tursi

18 Howard Street
Burlington, Vermont;/br>

Green Door Studio founder and artistic director Drew Matott had a singular vision in mind when he opened the eponymous green door in 2002 – create a space that emerging and established artists could utilize to pursue their aesthetic passions. Six years later, he stands at the helm of a studio that not only churns out provocative works, but community-focused artists as well.

Through the Lense: SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES: Esteban Pastorino Diaz

Minying Tan

Grossman Gallery
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
230 The Fenway

Boston

Through October 13

WHILE THE WORK OF PHOTOGRAPHER ESTEBAN PASTORINO DÍAZ, WHO WAS BORN IN BUENOS AIRES IN 1972, HAS BEEN ACQUIRED BY MUSEUMS SUCH AS THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO AND BOSTON’S OWN MUSEUM OF FINE ART, THIS IS THE ARGENTINIAN’S LARGEST SOLO EXHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES TO DATE. ITS 70-SOMETHING IMAGES DEPICT LOCATIONS THAT INCLUDE VENICE, THE ALCAZABA IN SPAIN, AND TOKYO’S SHIBUYA SHOPPING DISTRICT.

Pastorino left behind his studies in mechanical engineering to pursue photography. Now he takes his handcrafted cameras on jaunts around the globe. “Sometimes I don’t consider myself a photographer,” he said. “Sometimes I say I’m a camera builder. It depends on the situation—I could be a photographer, an artist, or a technician. Sometimes [I’m] a strange blend of them… hard to tell.”

His cameras should have their own place in the exhibition. Pastorino’s stereographic panoramic cameras, which sport old-fashioned brass plating and decorative etchings, tend to attract attention wherever they are whipped out. “Nanjing #1” shows a crowd of Chinese passers-by almost pressing their noses to Pastorino’s lens: unable to deter their curiosity, Pastorino decided to focus on portraiture instead of

Featured Artist: JOHN DOWD and the Light of Cape Cod

Taylor M. Polites

OVER THE PAST 25 YEARS, JOHN DOWD HAS DEVELOPED A STYLE THAT IS INTIMATELY IDENTIFIED WITH THE LIGHT AND LANDSCAPE OF THE OUTER CAPE. NO ARTIST TODAY CAN BE CREDITED WITH GREATER SKILL OR FOCUS IN THAT INTERPRETATION. HIS DEPICTION OF NATURE HAS BECOME SO PRECISE AND RECOGNIZABLE THAT ACTUALLY SEEING THE LIGHT AND SHADOW OR SKY AND CLOUDS OF THE REGION CAN INSTANTLY CONJURE HIS WORK WITH ITS METICULOUS DETAIL. FEW ARTISTS HAVE ACHIEVED THAT LEVEL OF IDENTIFICATION BETWEEN THEIR WORK AND THE LANDSCAPE THEY PAINT.

“The light is why I’ll stop in front of a scene,” Dowd said. “The light will make you feel something that you never did before; the fall of a shadow, the refl flection of the sky. It’s all about how to read a landscape and the feelings that a landscape can inspire.” Labor Day Weekend has become the traditional launch for Dowd’s new work at the William Scott Gallery in Provincetown, and his skill at expressing those moments of luminous bliss on the Outer Cape remain manifest.

Industry Focus: Diana Levine Fine Art

Brian Goslow

One Design Center Place
Suite 541
Boston

JUST BECAUSE DIANA LEVINE FINE ART PUTS HUNDREDS OF ARTWORKS INT INTO HOTELS, CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS AND HOLLYWOOD MOVIES DOESN’T MEAN ITS OWNER DOESN’T PUT EQUAL IMPORTANCE ON THE NEXT CUSTOMER WALKING THROUGH HER DOOR. “NO MATTER HOW SMALL OR HOW LARGE A SALE, I HAVE TO TAKE THE LITTLE ONES,” SAID DIANA LEVINE, WHOSE BUSINESS IS STRATEGICALLY LOCATED IN THE BOSTON DESIGN CENTER.

“Maybe I’ll just sell two posters for $75 each but I don’t know where those might lead,” said Levine. Indeed, one such sale eventually led to her furnishing artwork for the entire home of a corporate executive. “That’s why you never ever know. It started with a poster for his office.”

Levine’s corporate art consulting career began in 1977. She followed the lead of her mother, Raye Landis, an early innovator in the field who counted filling all 26-floors of the New Jersey Public Service Electric & Gas Company building with works by New Jersey artists amongst her greatest successes. “I was fortunate that my first big client as a corporate art consultant was Prime Computer,” Levine said. “They had bought out Computervision and I was hired to redo their headquarters. I worked so hard to make it work.”

In 1987, she decided to bypass Newbury Street and open her own gallery showroom in the newly opened Boston Design Center on the South Boston waterfront. She’s still an important piece of what the center offers: one- stop shopping for building architects as well as individuals looking to remodel or build a new home. “In 2008, being in the Boston Design Center makes my gallery entirely different than

RUMINANT

Elena Sarni

The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art
522 Congress Street
Portland, Maine

Through October 19

Elena's To-Do List

1. laundry
2. write syllabus for introduction to art history class
3. email Cynthia, David and Valerie
4. lunch
5. stop at ICA and view exhibit installation in progress
6. buy birthday present for Sarah
7. watch Olympics
8. stop procrastinating
9. really, stop procrastinating
10. write article
11. meet deadline?
12. remember to give this list to Adriane Herman

Artist Adrian Herman admits that such lists are “the minutiae of life," but explain that they allow her to step into the lives of others and know people, beyond the level of mere small talk. Her work is less about voyeurism and more about anthropology - how people prioritize things, what they struggle with and how they attempt to organize their lives.

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.

Her collection of lists now fills approximately eight binders and has been the source material for much of her work during the last decade.

In a sense Herman’s lists are literally “cud,” or fiber, the ruminant of life, exemplifying most closely the meaning of the Maine College of Art’s Faculty Select exhibit, Ruminant, the first of two faculty shows. ICA Interim Director Lauren Fensterstock explained that the Faculty Selects

BOUNDLESS BEAUTY

Taryn Plumb

Wadsworth Atheneum
600 Main Street
Hartford, Connecticut

Through September 21

THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM.

On the wall, like pages torn from catalogs, dangle frizzy, balled Afros. Jheri-curls. Bunches of locks hung limply, like corpses, in hairnets. Weaves resembling horsewhips. Up-dos wound tight like cinnamon buns. Down below, there’s even a tiny triangular puff of a merkin - or a stand-in for pubic hair.

In many African-American communities, hair enhancements such as these are like jewelry; an everyday accessory, nothing unusual. But as portrayed in these 54 serigraphs in Lorna Simpson’s “Wigs II” - alone, unattached to heads or private parts - they look like alien artifacts. Can these lifeless, awkward forms really be what society requires for black men and women to be considered attractive?

MYONG HEE KIM: Peace Masks and XI CAI: Infinity Within

Paula Melton

C.X. Silver Gallery

814 Western Avenue
Brattleboro, Vermont

Through September 23

“ART NEEDS COURAGE,” SAYS BRATTLEBORO PAINTER XI CAI. THESE EXHIBITIONS TAKE THIS PRINCIPLE TO HEART. THEY WORK IN TANDEM TO REACH BEYOND CONVENTIONAL WESTERN ARTISTIC BOUNDARIES – PARTICULARLY THE ARTISTIC EGO.

Up first, is a show by Linda E. Jones and Riki Moss.

Kim’s peace masks are a collection of facial casts crafted of handmade mulberry paper. Because of the nature of this “slow art” – participants must lie still for 20 to 30 minutes, not talking, and breathing only through straws in their nostrils – each mask is the relic of an act of profound patience and trust. Excess paper softly surrounds each face like a nimbus in the form of a paper fl flower. Affixed with drapery pins to a long piece of cloth, they form a textured curtain of human diversity expressed in each individual face, as well as

Beyond the Borders - KEN TAKASHI HORII: OF MIND AND MATTER

Meredith Cutler

The Chazan Gallery at Wheeler
228 Angell Street
Providence, Rhode Island

September 18 through October 8

ENTERING THE GALLERY, OBSERVE BEFORE YOU THE TEMPLE-RED BUDDHAPADA, THE DIAMOND REALM MANDALA…AND, BOTH “VISHNU’S SMALL [AND BIG] BIG BANG THEORIES.” BEFORE CONSULTING YOUR MANUAL, IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT KEN TAKASHI HORII APPROACHES THESE HEADY SYMBOLS AND DIAGRAMMATIC PROBLEMS FIRST AND FOREMOST AS AN ARTIST, NOT AS A DISCIPLE.

While steeped in esoteric inquiry on the surface, in essence, this show is a chapter in the story of an American artist. After all, Ken Takashi Horii, a third generation Japanese-American, was born and raised in New York City.

Only in adulthood did Horii delve into his lineage to discover an impressive 14 generations of Shinto priests, as well as strong ancestral ties to the sect of Shingõn Buddhism from which he freely borrows iconographic references.

These include direct parallels, such as his adaptation of the Diamond Realm mandala as a diagrammatic structure; and, more subtle echoes, like the obscured source images behind the gestural inkblot drawings he nests within.

Beyond the Borders - DAVID H. WELLS: LIGHT STUDIES

Meredith Cutler

Gail Cahalan Gallery
200 Allens Avenue
Providence, RI

October 15 through November 8

Where does the journalistic nature of photography end and art begin? Photographer David H. Wells seeks answers to that longstanding question. As a freelance photojournalist, Wells’ work has appeared in major publications like the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, Time Magazine and National Geographic. Independently, he produces photo essays documenting the impact of globalization on India and other developing nations, funding his extensive travels through grants and fellowships. Clearly, the shutter is his third eye onto a dynamic world.

In between the thousands of frame sets, another visual reality has captured the artist’s imagination. As both a compliment to and departure from his prolific “political” work, Wells has concurrently compiled his more poetic series of “Light Studies,” a small selection of which are to be shown at the Gail Cahalan Gallery in his home base of Providence. Shot alongside his project work, these images feel more through depicting less.

“The work being shown is arguably the most personal, immediediate and aesthetically important to me,” noted Wells, speaking with artscope via an Internet café in India. “It is neither filtered through the eyes of or distorted by the mission of a payin paying client, nor altered by going through the framework of one of the more political projects that I usually do. It is not particularly positive or negative as much as it is different in a very satisfying way.”

Beyond the Border - ANSELM KIEFER: Sculpture and Paintings

Gary Duehr

MASS MoCA
1040 Mass MoCA Way
North Adams, Massachusetts

Through October 2009

IN A WORD, “WOW.” COMING UP THE STAIRS TO THE VAST SECOND FLOOR OF MASS MOCA, IN THE FACTORY-SIZED MUSEUM THAT’S BUILT FOR THE POWER OF SCALE, ANSELM KIEFER’S EXHIBITION THRILLS NOT JUST FOR THE BIGNESS OF ITS SCULPTURE AND PAINTINGS, BUT ALSO FOR ITS AMBITIOUS REACH INTO HISTORY.

Before you lays “Etroits sont les Vaisseaux” (Narrow Are the Vessels), an 80’ long stretch etch of crumpled road oadway way, thr three to four layers deep of concrete chunks, rippling in undulations as if an earthquake or bomb had ripped them from their mooring. Here and there the concrete is draped with lead sheets like in a morgue, and sticking out from the sides are rusty spears of rebar. The whole thing is beautiful and brutal, an en enormous found object from an apocalyptic event. Written on the wall is a quotation from “Amers” by Saint-John Perse: “In vain the surrounding land traces for us its narrow confines. One same wave throughout the world, one same wave, since Troy rolls its haunch toward us.”

So this serpentine swath of destruction is the wave. Of war? Of mankind’s timeless desire to annihilate itself? It’s as if the raw materials from Kiefer’s paintings have slid from their frames, as if he has finally achieved the alchemy to

Beyond the Borders - AMERICAN DREAM: Sally Curcio and Jeff Vespa

Greg Morell

Wünderarts Gallery
383 Main Street
Amherst, Massachusetts

September 13 through October 19

A FEW SHORT YEARS EARS AGO GO, WHILE ATTENDING AN OPENING AT THE A.P.E. GALLERY IN NORTHAMPTON, I WAS HAUNTED BY MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH SALLY CURCIO’S WORK. CONFRONTED WITH A CHANDELIER OF STERILE HOSPITAL BLOOD BAGS IN A CALDERESQUE MOBILE, MY FIRST IMPULSE WAS TO RUN.

Personally, I faint at the sight of blood. Upon waking, my vision fogs, everything turns blue and I remain dizzy, distressed and disoriented. I gingerly approached Curcio’s installation, housed in a very tight claustrophobic space and was glad to make it out alive.

When I discovered my assignment for this issue of artscope was to meet and interview Sally Curcio in her studio and preview her upcoming exhibition at the Wunderarts Gallery, I was again overcome with Chekovian dread and the desire to run.

But, much to my surprise, Curcio and her works are delightful, lighthearted, smartly imaginative, spirited and playful.

Armed with an arsenal of straight pins and a limitless supply of beads, Curcio has created a series of mini-mosaics neatly presented under glass. With Buddhist concentration and a deft ability to manipulate the minuscule, Curcio has crafted precious jewel-like compositions. These tableau reliefs are not mounted on the wall but sit embedded

Community: Somersworth, New Hampshire MAIN STREET MURAL PROJECT

Rick Agran

PAINTER GORDON CARLISLE THINKS BIG HAS SERVED HIM WELL. HOW ELSE CAN YOU RENDER A CITY? HIS SELF-PORTRAIT OF SOMERSWORTH, LOCATED IN THE SOUTHEASTERN PART OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, IS A 1,500 SQUARE QUARE FOOT WORK-IN- PROGRESS MURAL BACKED BY AND DESIGNED IN CONCERT WITH ITS CITIZENS.

Carlisle, a former co-proprietor of Mural Works, who has designed large-scale public art for over two decades, auditioned for a selection on cadre of 13 artists, engaged citizens, local business people, politicos and historians.

“A mural can be a healing or it can be a scenario, an imagining,” said Carlisle, who has installed his metaphoric paintings in the Sununu Youth Development Center and larger-than-life- B&W “photos” in an Alzheimer’s patient war ward. He’s rendered period paintings of soldiers’ homecoming ports at a veteran’s home and designed a faux cutaway in an elementary school library ceiling so students see books fly up into the sky.

Somersworth liked Carlisle’s designs and professionalism, and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts awarded the city a community arts grant that helped shepherd the project from concept to actuality. A handful of corporate sponsors donated paint and materials. Other stakeholders offered monetary support and human labor to prep the “canvas” on Constitutional Way. Gary Langley signed on pro bono as photo documentarian. Even the

Community: Roslindale Open Studios

Franklin W. Liu

Roslindale, Massachusetts

November 8 and 9

THE FOSTERING OF GREATER COMMUNITY INTEREST IN FINE ARTS AND CRAFTS IS THE MISSION OF THE ROSLINDALE ART ALLIANCE, A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOUNDED BY GLENN AND JANICE WILLIAMS. ITS FOURTH ANNUAL ROSLINDALE OPEN STUDIOS ON NOVEMBER 8 AND 9 WILL SHOWCASE THE WORK OF NEARLY 90 TALENTED ARTISTS. A SIX-MILE DRIVE FROM DOWNTOWN BOSTON, THE HOST AREA IS EASILY ACCESSIBLE VIA MBTA BUSES AND TRAINS; COMMUTER RAIL SERVICE IS AVAILABLE ON SATURDAY ONLY.

The popular event’s exhibitions are easily accessible and dispersed throughout 15 artists’ studios with another 30 artists exhibiting in retail, cafe and other public locations. A diverse collection of works by painters, mixed media artists, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, potters, jewelry and fiber artists will be pr presented for view and purchase. The variety of artwork should appeal to everyone’s interest from serious investors to community activists who see art as a conduit for urgent social advocacy.

Amongst the participating artists is Erik Gehring. His thematic “Art in Nature” photograph prod us to evaluate the breath-taking natural beauty of our land while th they compel us to ponder the dire consequences of our societal, wanton neglect of the changing condition of Mother Earth.

Gehring’s work pays ardent tribute to Ansel Adams, whose stunning black and white panoramic photographs famously captured the pristine beauty of America’s wilderness out West. His own advocacy propels him to serve as a member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club, while he totes his camera around. Gehring has photographed up and down

Theater: HARBOR LIGHT STAGE PRESENTS “Three Viewings” by Jeffrey Hatcher

Rick Agran

Maine Stage
101 Long Sands Road
York, Maine

HARBOR LIGHT STAGE AND BOLD FACE PLAY SERIES FOUNDING DIRECTOR KENT STEPHENS LANDED ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SEACOAST AST A FEW YEARS AGO, HAVING COME TO THE REGION FROM MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL. BOASTING A COMBINED 85 THEATERS, THE CITY IS A MAJOR PROVING GROUND FOR CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER PLA PLAYWRIGHTS. IT WAS THERE THAT STEPHENS MET JEFFREY HATCHER AT THE MINNEAPOLIS PLAYWRIGHTS’ CENTER AND ITS LAB FOR WORKS-IN-PROGRESS.

The Midwest would serve as the inspiration for Hatcher’s “Three Viewings,” which takes a midwestern small-town funeral parlor as its set; his divergent monologues offer three vantage points. “This play actually began as a Valentine’s Day writing challenge: a one-act monologue of ten minutes that was to begin ‘I love you. I love you,’” Stephens said. “We got to watch it grow from there.”

The first of three storylines, “Tell-Tale,” shares the quirky inner workings of Emil, the undertaker, a community ringmaster, and unrequited lover of a local real estate agent. “The Thief of Tears” introduces us to Mac, a bejeweled 30-something mess, the family underachiever amongst the achieving, and a corpse robber by avocation. This tidbit is from her introductory gambit so we’re not playing spoiler here.

Music: DREAM OF MUSIC AND ART at the Bowersock Gallery

Roanna E. Forman

DREAM OF MUSIC AND ART: WORKS BY DUSTAN KNIGHT AND LAUREN POLLARO ACCOMPANIED BY THE SOUNDS OF DJ SUSAN MORABITO

Bowersock Gallery
373 Commercial Street
Provincetown, Massachusetts

September 12 through October 7

DJ Susan Morabito is all about movement, pulse and groove. On the dance floor, for sure. And now, in an art gallery. Nationally acclaimed on the gay men’ men’s club dance circuit, Morabito took the inspiration of works by two visual artists - watercolorist Dustan Knight of Provincetown and jewelry maker/mixed media artist Laur Lauren Pollaro of York, Maine – and interpreted them through music. It’s the first time she’s worked this way. In turn, Pollaro and Knight produced new work while immersing themselves in recordings of Morabito’s sound mixes.

Capsule Previews: September/October 2008

Brian Goslow

Art on the Hill is a collaborative effort by four Federal Hill galleries on Atwells Avenue in Providence to promote their late summer and early fall offerings and to bring new visitors to the area. Gallery Z features Rhode Island Italian Artists (including Anthony Tomaselli, whose work is pictured) through October 4 and Stephen Brigidi’s “Colors of Italy” travel photography from October 7 through November 8. The Royal al Gallery showcases “Romard: An Armenian Expressionist” through October 4 and “Our Loyal Companions: Animals in Art” from October 7 through November 8. A selection of works from the Gallery at 17 Peck collection starts its season from mid-September till October 11 before Baltimore-based artists Christian and Shari Weschler Rubeck take the spotlight with their surreal animal and human figures (which sometimes become one and the same; think Chagall) from October 16 through November 15. Also check out the newly opened Chabot Fine Art Gallery, which introduces itself through a multi-media exhibition of works by Julie Houck, Neal Drobnis, Lee Chabot and Carolyn Latanision through November 1.

Staying in Rhode Island, the Tenth Annual Pawtucket Arts Festival has plenty for everyone, from zydeco and Cajun music, theater and dance to a film festival from September 5 through 21. Art lovers will want to mark their calendars for the Stone Soup Folk Festival, with live music and works by over 70 artists on the 13th and 14th at Slater Memorial Park, and the Third Annual Pawtucket Open Studios weekend on September 19, 20 and 21. You’ll have the chance to see how textiles, mosaics, prints, sculpture and human sculptures – also known as Pilates – take their form. The full schedule’s available at Pawtucketartsfestival.org.

The fall always brings with it open studios season including South End Open Studios in Boston (September 20 and 21) for which artist, designer and inventor Eric Starosielski will be opening his new loft in the Art Block complex at 725 Harrison Ave.

The dozen graduates of the 2008 class of the Masters of Fine Art program at MassArt at the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) in Provincetown will have their Student Thesis Exhibition at both the FAWC and Provincetown Art Association & Museum from September 12 through 24. The show presents a chance for students to reach a wider audience as part of their transition from the academic world, giving their work exposure to the thousands of artists, art professionals, gallery owners, and art appreciators who come through Provincetown – and in turn, we get an early glimpse of the region’s top emerging artists.

If you’re driving around the Pioneer Valley portion of Massachusetts on Sunday, September 28, keep an eye out for one of the 25 artists from around the region and world who’ll be painting “en plein air,” creating works to be displayed throughout the following week at the New Gallery at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, 30 Locust Street, Northampton. Works from the Wet Paint! exhibition will be auctioned off on October 5 at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House, 500 Easthampton Road in Holyoke. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime to acquire one-of-a-kind pieces done by the Connecticut River Valley’s most famous artists,” said Cooley Dickinson Gallery curator Betty Ann Krywicki. “This will be an all encompassing show that allows art enthusiasts to view unique pieces in a style not normally done by the artists and to let collectors capitalize on an opportunity to build upon their collection.”

Mollie Goldstrom’s first solo exhibition, Works on Paper, 2005-2008, explores the ambiguous space between opposing states of existence through popular folklore, personal myth, current events and environmental issues. These whimsical prints and drawings take on metaphysical, allegorical, political and social issues and can be seen from October 2 through 31 at Guari Collections, 91 Charles Street in Boston.

“Overflow: A Visual Feast of Sensuality of Beauty,” which can be seen from October 3 through November 22 at the Laconia Gallery, 433 Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End, is the vision of curator Resa Blatman, who wanted to create a show encompassing the themes of beauty, an over abundance of sensuality, and meticulous art making in contemporary art today. “I met Mary O'Malley and Sara Hairston-Medice at a 2006 show we were all in at artspace@16 in Malden,” Blatman said. “Mary had seen my work on the web and commented that she had an image of one of my paintings on her desktop as a screen saver. At that point, I had a deliberate look at her drawings in the show and saw that there were many commonalities within our work, and that it was beautiful. Sara's work intrigued me - I loved her use of everyday knitting materials to create fertile, organic masses. Right away, I thought the three of us could offer a stunning show of work.”

If you haven’t made it to the seashore this summer, you can still get a dose of its relaxing effect through the “Angle of Repose” exhibition at the Powers Gallery at 144 Great Road in Acton, Mass. through October 12. Teri Malo’s realistic oil paintings of ocean waves and beach pebbles are complimented by Jill Solomon’s organic ceramic wall sculptures, vessels and standing sculpture. “Teri’s artwork celebrates the power and scale of nature. She is able to capture the atmosphere of the ocean by painting the air around it, painting the sea in an exact way, but also leaves much to the viewer’s imagination,” said the gallery’s Elizabeth Hanson. “Alternatively, her stones are a masterpiece of placement and order, almost like a mosaic, but done in a very tactile way. Similarly, Jill’s earth-toned ceramics include abstracted figurative pieces, platters, touchstones and wall sculptures - all incorporating a Zen-like quality and an elegant, simple form.”

To have your exhibition considered for an upcoming Capsule Preview, please send full details and a high-resolution image from the show to bgoslow@artscopemagazine.com.