Fine Arts
-
Xu Bing at the Aldrich Museum
The Art of Tabacco
By: - Feb 20th, 2013In 1995 Xu Bing was invited to visit Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Exploring the area around Durham, he visited the Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum, tobacco farms, and the former Liggett & Meyers cigarette factory, experiences that planted the seeds for a body of work that now spans more than a decade. Work by Xu Bing is on view at Mass MoCA for the coming year. We repost this earlier related coverage by permission of Richard Friswell and Arrtes Magazing.
-
Gerry Bergstein: Theory and Practice
Boston's Gallery NAGA March 1 through 23
By: - Feb 19th, 2013Boston has never abandoned its passion for painters. One of the very best currently, in a tradition that stretches back to John Singleton Copley, is the anxious surrealist with agita to the max Gerry Bergstein. A new body of work is always an occasion for celebration.
-
Michelangelo's David-Apollo at the National Gallery
Unfinished Sculpture on View Through March 3
By: - Feb 18th, 2013Occasions to see sculpture by the Italian Renaissance master, Michelangelo Buonarotti, are few and far between. From now through March 3 his unfnished Apollo-David is on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
-
Larry Smallwood Named Deputy Director
New Postion for Mass MoCA
By: - Feb 18th, 2013With the appointment of Larry Smallwood, MASS MoCA has named its first-ever Deputy Director. Smallwood previously worked for the institution as its first Production Manager in the Performing Arts and later as Visual Arts Production and Technical Manager. He will return to the museum in his new role on February 25, 2013.
-
The Eccentric Barnes Foundation
Following Litigation Relocated to Philadelphia
By: - Feb 18th, 2013After lengthy law suits breaking the iron clad will of Dr. Albert Barnes, his foundation relocated from its inaccessible suburban home in Marion to downtown Philadelphia in 2012. In 1992, The Barnes Foundation received court approval to send 80 works on tour to generate funds for needed renovations. The Foundation continued to struggle financially, hampered by poor management for a time, the isolation of its location, and local restrictions on parking which reduced the number of visitors. From its inception, the Barnes Foundation has been the focus of ridicule and controversy. Today the collection of 2,500 works is valued at between 20 and 30 billion dollars.
-
Rebecca Chamberlain at NY's Dodge Gallery
Homatorium I the Artist's Second Dodge Show
By: - Feb 08th, 2013For Homatorium I, Chamberlain creates an environment in the inner gallery resembling the feeling of Frank Lloyd Wright's Zimmerman House; marking a shift for Chamberlain, as she focuses for the first time on a singular site.
-
In/Visible: Women of Two Worlds
Clark's uCurate Program Features Ashley Smith
By: - Feb 06th, 2013The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents In/Visible: Women of Two Worlds, the second exhibition created through its interactive uCurate program. In/Visible, an intriguing look at the worlds of women, was created by clergywoman Ashley Smith of Stephentown, New York and is on view through March 10.
-
Sure Sure Davi Det Hompson: 1976-1995
ZieherSmith Gallery Feb.2 to March 2
By: - Jan 29th, 2013Sure Sure Davi Det Hompson: 1976-1995 is an unconventional retrospective organized from the artist’s estate. A respected young American member of Fluxus in the late '60s and early '70s, Hompson’s initial successes included a solo exhibition of sculpture and prints at Alexander Iolas Gallery and his inclusion in canonical exhibitions such as Art by Telephone at MOCA Chicago, the Whitney’s Ray Johnson: New York Correspondence School Exhibition and Yoko Ono’s This Is Not Here
-
The Art of Scent, 1889 - 2012
New York’s Museum of Arts and Design
By: - Jan 29th, 2013Perfumes, fragrances and scents are everywhere in our lives - natural and artificial ones! The Museum of Arts and Design in New York challenges the American public for the first time to recognize creators and creations: Fragrances - as artists and 'Olfactory Art.' The Art of Scent exhibition presents convincingly developments of the last 125 years in the perfume industry, and fragrances that had the most impact over time.
-
Electric Paris at the Clark Art Institute
Let There Be Light
By: - Jan 28th, 2013In the 1840s, Paris was one of the first cities to experiment with electric street lighting, and a huge increase in gas light in the 1850s secured the capital’s reputation as “The City of Light.†By the 1880s, electricity began to illuminate high-profile boulevards, and culminated in the widespread installation of incandescent electric street lighting across the city in the early decades of the twentieth century.
-
Martin Mugar and Paul Pollaro at Bromfield Gallery
Aspects of Extreme Painting
By: - Jan 25th, 2013In an essay to accompany a two man exhibition at Boston's Bromfield Gallery a regular BFA contributor, Martin Mugar, asks "Why the pairing of Martin Mugar and Paul Pollaro’s paintings? The obvious difference binds them together as artists in the tradition of Western Painting: Mugar loves color and Pollaro value. Mugar’s color hints at an overall value and Pollaro’s values suggest colors."
-
Carrie Mae Weems at Nashville's Frist Center
Three Decades of Photographs and Video
By: - Jan 23rd, 2013From the Frist Center For The Visual Arts, in Nashville, its originating venue, the Carrie Mae Weems retrospective travels to the Portland, Oregon Art Museum, (February 2-May 19, 2013), The Cleveland Museum of Art (June 30-September 29, 2013, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in California (October 16, 2013 – January 5, 2014), ending its run at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (January 24-April 23, 2014).
-
Mass MoCA Director Joe Thompson Two
Programming the Vast Building Five
By: - Jan 17th, 2013The vast vaulted space of Building Five is roughly the length and width of two, end to end, football fields. Globally, there are only a handful of similar spaces. The basic approach of artists over the last 13 years has been to jam it full or leave it relatively empty. The current installation "Phoenix" by Xu Bing realizes its full potential. In this second and final installment of an extensive dialogue Mass MoCA director Joe Thopson discusses the museum's programming and challenges.
-
Peabody Essex Museum
2013 Exhibitions
By: - Jan 15th, 2013The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass announces its schedule of exhibitions for 2013. The program kicks off with Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India after Independence From the Peabody Essex Museum’s Herwitz Collection which will be on view from February 2 through April 21.
-
Sculptor Billy Lee
Series Inspired by Warrior's Helmets
By: - Jan 14th, 2013Billy Lee has always been a maker and shaper of material. For several years between his stints at Michigan and UNC-G he lived in Vancouver, B.C. where his extended family resided. His preternatural drive is to reach out into our physical world and reshape and remake it. He is an artist who spontaneously connects with the material and the processes that allow him to manipulate it.
-
Yale University Art Gallery Reopens
America's Oldest University Art Museum
By: - Jan 12th, 2013Anchoring the gallery at one end is the sleek concrete and glass Kahn Gallery (1953), a landmark space envisioned by Yale’s one-time dean of the School of Architecture. Its north-facing, street-level window complex tempts the passer-by with glimpses of the treasures contained there-in.
-
Joe Thompson on Mass MoCA China Projects
Xu Bing Phoenix Currently on View
By: - Jan 09th, 2013Even before Mass MoCA opened Joe Thompson was negotiating with the Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping to participate in the group exhibition Unnatural Science in 2001. That led to a retrospective organized by the Walker Art Center. Major installations followed in the vast Building Five by Cai Guo-Qiang and currently Phoenix by Xu Bing which is on view for the coming year. This is the first of two parts of a dialogue about contemporary Chinese Art.
-
Matisse at the Met Through March 17
In Search of True Painting
By: - Dec 27th, 2012Matisse: In Search of True Painting is a modest exhibition of just 49 works selected by Rebecca Rabinow, a curator of modern and contemporary art for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It offers multiple views of specific themes and subjects. This provides valuable insights to the process and techniques of the artist. The Met show of Matisse is as satisfying as Picasso Black and White at the Guggenheim is a bloody awful mess. In this clash of Titans, and faceoff of Holiday blockbusters, Matisse and the Met win hands down. No contest.
-
Huang Yong Ping at Mass MoCA
House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective
By: - Dec 26th, 2012This article originally appeared in Maverick Arts a site prior to Berkshire Fine Arts in 2006. Because of the continued interest in contemporary Chinese art by Mass MoCA is has been reposted. The museum is currently showing Xu Bing. This article has a link to a recent exhibition of work by Ping in New York.
-
Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim
Snap, Crackle, and Pop
By: - Dec 26th, 2012The exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe originated at Mass MoCA. We reviewed the Guggenheim Museum installation for Maverick Arts in 2008. This was one of three major exhibitions featuring contemporary Chinese artists. The others were Huang Yong Ping in 2006 and the current, 2012-2013 installation by Xu Bing.
-
Xu Bing Phoenix at Mass MoCA
Mythical Birds Evoke Contemporary Issues
By: - Dec 26th, 2012There were many daunting impediments in presenting Phoenix a vast sculptural installation by the leading Chinese artist, Xu Bing, at Mass MoCA. This third major project with contemporary Chinese artists remains on view in North Adams for the coming year.
-
Xu Bing Language Lost
Mass College of Art 1995
By: - Dec 24th, 2012Currently two massive sculptures comprising Phoenix by the Chinese artist, Xu Bing, are installed in the vast space of Building Five at Mass MoCA. We first were introduced to the work of the artist through a 1995 exhibition Language Lost at Mass College of Art. It was our first exposure to contemporary Chinese art which has since moved to the critical mainstream. This is a portfolio of vintage images of that earlier project.
-
Chelsea Galleries Stumble Through Holidays
Bubble Bursts Post Sandy
By: - Dec 22nd, 2012Hurricane Sandy flooded the Chelsea galleries resulting in the loss of entire exhibitors and millions of dollars worth of inventory in basement storage areas. During a holiday tour we found mostly business as usual with the major galleries with some still closed for renovation. We provide an in depth slide show of several of the more noteworthy exhibitions.
-
Bernini: Sculpting in Clay at the Met
Stunning Exhibition on View Through January 6
By: - Dec 21st, 2012The stunning exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art "Bernini Sculpting in Clay" includes 29 of the artist’s bozetti, or sketch models in terracotta, standing between 12 and 20 inches tall — along with one or two larger and more finished models, which are as much as three feet tall. The project, which as been co organized with the Kimbell Museum, provides compelling insights to the artist's working process.
-
Gutai: Splendid Playground, at the Guggenheim
Post War Japanese Art Feb.15 to May 8
By: - Dec 20th, 2012The Gutai Art Association was founded in 1954 by the influential artist, teacher, and critic Yoshihara Jiro in the town of Ashiya, near Osaka. The group spanned two generations, totaling fifty-nine artists over its eighteen-year history. The name “Gutai†literally means "concreteness†and captures the direct engagement with materials its members were experimenting with around the time it began.
<< Previous Next >>