FLUX.

FLUX. is a resource for artists and art enthusiasts in the Boston area(and beyond!) Desk-rat by day, but I spend my downtime, in-between chaos time, mozilla bookmarks, and nights thinking about/working on art and the likes. I would like to share my findings with you, if that's okay. Say hi.: Liz [at] fluxboston [dot] org Follow Me: twitter.com/fluxboston

[fluxboston-blog]

Q: Where did you go?

Hi.

A: FLUX. is now a dot com on WordPress! You can find me over thattaway.

There is also a Facebook page and Twitter account to keep in touch as well.

Would hate to lose all my tumblr followers in the ether. 

xx

♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Season 4

(Alex McCord at Peter Tunney Fundraiser)

“I’m not sure if Alex and Simon are in the market to buy art, but I know that they’ll come to the opening of an envelope”

– Kelly Killoren Bensimon

  Kelly actually said something witty for once. Kudos, you.  

Happy Monday!

Lots of exciting happenings with FLUX. that I can't wait to share. Need to put my head down these next few days before I head out to the West Coast for a mini-vacation.  But there will be posts.

There will be blood. :-E

♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Weekly Wrap-up for April 8th, 2011

Another one bites the dust.

--------------

Brother From Another Mother

(The work of Kenji Nakayama)

When: April 8th-May 5th, 2011

Opening Reception: April 8th, 2011 7PM

Where: Lot F Gallery, 145 Pearl Street #4, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Local Boston artists, Dana Woulfe and Kenji Nakayama have long been collaborating in their South Boston studio and as members of the artist collaborative Project SF, but the duo’s counter balancing styles will be on full display in their first ever joint exhibition, showcasing collaborations and solo works at the Lot F Gallery, 145 Pearl St #4, Boston, MA. The show opens with a reception on Friday, April 8, 2011 at 7PM.

The two artists and Distillery studio mates who are also employed as Converse footwear designers, posses vastly divergent styles and have been experimenting for several years with large scale mixed media work that combines Woulfe’s wildly abstract, vibrant and at times chaotic landscapes with Nakayama’s incredibly detailed, precise and realistic cityscapes.  “We’re excited about this exhibit, said Woulfe. “It provides us with a backdrop for a large body of work that we’ve been developing over the past year and gives us a chance to showcase the juxtaposition of our different backgrounds and styles – mine which is influenced by abstraction and graffiti and Kenji’s which comes from a more precise, stylized sign painting background.” We are very excited and hope to see you there! Come early, as it does tend to get busy as it gets later! "

--------------

Shellburne Thurber: 9 Wellington Street

When: On view through April 26th, 2011

Where: Barbara Krakow Gallery, 10 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why:  "Barbara Krakow Gallery is honored to present Shellburne Thurber's first solo project in eight years. After an incredibly busy decade with projects at the Bloomberg Space in London, the Boston Athenaeum, the ICA, Boston, the MFA, Boston, the Weatherspoon in North Carolina, as well as at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Shellburne hunkered down on several new projects, with 9 Wellington Street being the most personal. Known as the one Boston School photographer who chose to stay in Boston, Shellburne uses this exhibition to engage issues of individuality, vision, commitment, community, support and home."

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2011 Annual Members' Juried Exhibition

(Vermeer in His Studio, David Lowrey)

When: On view now through April 30th, 2011

Where: Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116 

How: Official Website

-----------------------

UFORGE Gallery Grand Opening

(Sunrise over Jamaica Pond, John Truslow)

When: Saturday April 9th, 2011. 6PM

Where: UFORGE Gallery, 767 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Please join UFORGE Gallery on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 6:00pm – 8:00pm, as we officially open our doors to our inaugural exhibit, ART DECO. Come experience a variety of inspiring, one-of-a-kind creations! 

In conjunction with the opening festivities, UFG is hosting this year's JP to ME 2011, "Defined by Light". JP to Me is an annual themed exhibition showcasing a group of artists' work inspired by Jamaica Plain and its richness and diversity. For more information, please visit, www.jptome.com"

--------------

AD 20/21

When: April 8th-10th

Where: Cyclorama, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "50 Select Exhibitors from across the United States offering fine art, photography, jewelry, furniture, glass, ceramics,sculpture, fine prints, drawings, and more at the only show and sale of its kind in New England."

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John Udvardy: A Sculptor's Vision

When: On view through April 22nd, 2011

Where: Jewett Art Gallery, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02482

How: Official Website

What/Why: John Udvardy's sculptures, drawings, and collages invite us into one of the most rarified of experiences--an unforgettable vehicle for contemplation.His work is masterfully crafted and imbued with secrets, like our own elusive memories and dreams that we forget at our peril.John's work is one of the strangest and most satisfying visual experiences one can have: it is as if his work transports all the senses, giving sight, smell, proportion, and silence a raw, unpolluted collective power, like wisps of the seemingly lost, yet re-discovered, essential.

--------------

You may remember I mentioned The SMFA's Allegorical Outfits Part 1 in last week's wrap-up.  Here are the other two parts of this really unique event taking place this weekend:

SMFA: Allegorical Outfits, Fool's Play(Parts 2+3 of 3)

Sculpture and Painting Annex 

 (Work by Corey Dunlap)

When: Sat April 9-Weds 13th

Opening Reception:Saturday April 9th 6-9pm w/musical performances by Kellie Kildahl and Kid Romance 

Where: 309 Hancock Gallery , 309 Hancock Street , Boston, MA 02122 

How: Official Website ******

A Night of Performance and Video 

(Bobby Andres)

When: Friday April 8th,  6-10pm 

Where: Yes.Oui.Si. (1 block from the SMFA) 19 Vancouver St. Boston, MA 02115

How: Official Website

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Fountain Street Studios Open Studios

(Nest, Anne Sargent Walker)

When: April 8th-10th, 2011

Where: 59 Fountain Street, Framingham, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "The art-loving public, of all ages, is invited to this free event featuring artists working in a variety of media - painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, watercolor, digital imagery, mixed media and glass. Meet us in our workspaces and learn more about our art making process. From greeting cards to major pieces of art, there is something for everyone to enjoy and possibly purchase. There is plenty of free parking, and we are only a 10-minute walk from the Framingham Commuter Rail Station."

------------------

Whistling Past the Freedom Trail /Lucy Lippard, The Lure of the Local

Opening Reception: April 8th, 2011 5-7PM

Where: The William Morris Hunt Memorial Library, Horticultural Hall 2nd Floor 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

How: Official Website

What/Why:"The staff of the William Morris Hunt Memorial Library cordially invites you to the 12th exhibition in our collaboration with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The library hosts a continuing series of exhibitions of works created by students at the SMFA.

Whistling Past the Freedom Trail

Most often, place applies to our own “local”—entwined with personal memory, known or unknown histories, marks made in the land that provoke and evoke. Places latitudinal and longitudinal within the map of a person’s life. It is temporal and spatial, personal and political. A layered location replete with human histories and memories, place has width as well as depth. It is about connections, what surrounds it, what formed it, what happened there, what will happen there.

Lucy Lippard, The Lure of the Local

Our relationship to place is continuously in flux, intimately subjective, and often in opposition to nationally constructed identity. In "Whistling Past the Freedom Trail," students, staff, and instructors at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, collaboratively author an alternative tour guide that serves to complicate our collective understandings of the city we inhabit."

----------------------

 ZONA MACO México Arte Contemporáneo

When: On view through May 7th, 2011

Where: Samson Projects, 450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "ZONA MACO México Arte Contemporáneo

with works by Victoria Fu, Alix Pearlstein, Adrian Piper, Carrie Mae Weems, Summer Wheat & Francesca Woodman"

Also on view at Samson:

Hank Willis Thomas (through May 7th, 2011)

(The French Way(From the Unbranded Series))

-----------

Bizarre Animals 2.0

When: April 8th, 2011 7-9:30PM

Where: Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

How: Official Website

Cost: $6

What/Why: "Please join us for a special evening of performance, sound, and video throughout the galleries of the Harvard Museum of Natural History. For two and half hours, artists and performers—including Harvard students, alumni and others—will transform the museum into laboratory, library, exploratorium, and stage. Through thoughtful interventions and captivating experiments, viewers will experience new ways to engage with the museum’s spaces, its collections, and its history. "

-------------------

Mass Art Benefit Art Auction

(Moment of Enlightenment, Alison Dworsack)

BOLDED ASIDE: Can someone bid on this for me? ;*

When: Saturday April 9th, 2011

Where:  Mass Art, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

How: Official Website 

Cost: $175. Tickets can be purchased here.

What/Why: "MassArt's Annual Benefit Art Auction is the college's signature fundraising event. Every year, it generates resources in support of scholarships, faculty development, exhibitions, and visual arts programs for urban youth and other Boston-area residents. Last year's auction raised more than $600,000.

The auction features work in a variety of media by nationally and internationally known artists, emerging artists, as well as MassArt alumni, faculty, and students. Overall, more than three hundred pieces are included in the auction each year"

-------------------------------

So much to do, so little time!

Did I miss an event? Did I miss YOUR event? Let me know! (tweet tweet)

♥

[fluxboston-blog]

We Cannot Separate Ourselves From History

"If I was an Art teacher I would school my students in history, theory and philosophy because in my opinion, that’s what an artist should know inside and out. I grow tired of going to art galleries in Los Angeles and not being able to have a single conversation with any young artist because they don’t know their stuff. Most artists in LA seem to just want to put out super clean commercial art that would be sold at Urban Outfitters or some other trendy store. Some might be more original looking than others, but they clearly stuck in a Neo-Pop world that’s cornered them. We forget that artists in the past schooled themselves by making trips to Italy, France and Spain to absorb everything they could get their hands on. Young artists today often think they’re so cool and above it somehow…for me it’s getting old."

                                                                                                        -Sharon Fitzgerald

(If I was an art teacher...cont.)

(via The Art History Blog)

[fluxboston-blog]

Artist Showcase: Mary Hughes

                       (Ghost Spiral 3)

At the Copley Society of Art Small Works exhibition this past fall, one artist's painting stood out from the sea of canvases patterned along the surrounding gallery walls. It wasn't a piece evoking shock, inciting controversy, or crude, but rather an understated topographical painting by Mary Hughes of colorful porous forms and figures that when layered upon each other seemed to interact and coalesce creating a living organism that undulated out from the canvas surface.  Her piece was imbued with a silent confidence whose delicate abstract forms spoke out from its place on the wall, volumes above the rest. 

Traditionally, representational works have always been the easiest on the eyes for me and the simplest to mentally digest, but just as all tastes change, shift and grow, I now find myself intrigued and captivated by figurative works and their boundless landscapes.  

How are artists able to think in that way?  

Mary was kind enough to invite me into her beautiful Fenway studio which she shares with her husband and two friendly pups, to pick her brain on her process, pieces and what inspires her to do what she does.

A classically trained artist who received her Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from Mass Art, Mary has been creating and experimenting with the arts since a very early age.

“ I grew up in Boston, Jamaica Plain specifically. We lived in an Arts and Crafts style house that my mother was constantly redecorating, making curtains and slipcovers, re-papering the walls and rearranging the furniture in very specific ways. There was a sense of presentation to things. I think all that activity affected how I viewed my environment. My grandmother was a seamstress who took up painting later in life. I did my first oil painting ever with her. She gave me a picture postcard of waves crashing against rocks and I copied it. I wish I still had it. I do have a seascape of a lighthouse she did, which I keep in my studio.” (source)

(Millie in front of an unfinished piece.  Annie photobombing.)

Mary also finds inspiration in the colorful forms of Sol LeWitt, the Ming Dynasty scrolls of the MFA, the vibrant works of Fairfield Porter, and within the quieter moments of everyday life.

While her current body of work consists of organic shapes and forms, much of Mary's earlier paintings at the School of Fine Arts(now College of Fine Arts) were fairly representational in nature.  

"It was an academic approach to studio art-lots of figure drawing and painting, still lives, etc. It was the right thing for me at that time. I really learned about the discipline needed to make work. " (source)

(Convergence 1)

 It was after a series of experiences, travels, and through a natural progression in her work that the artist began to view the world through a different lens. While in France studying at the Lacoste School of Art, Mary began painting landscapes and exploring the creation of looser impressionist-like works. She wasn't interested in necessarily painting in a realistic way, but was more concerned with seeing form fields and portraying a sense of space and depth while playing out across a 2D space.  

She would go out into the countryside with her painting kit and take in the lush surroundings, like a scenic oak grove close to where she was staying. After these explorations, Mary said she would often retire to her studio and try to create a series of drawings and pastels from memory.  It was only after this and similar exercises that she began to realize her sketches were about rhythm, pattern, and line on the surface, but with an illusion of depth.  The artist was able to take the essence of her experience and surroundings and translate it into a work of art free from the rigid parameters of depicting trees, for example, strictly as we have come to recognize them in nature.  

(Terra)

Mary continued to work in this manner until graduate school at Mass Art where she received her MFA. She began testing the limits of composition in exploring notions of atmosphere, pushing traditional forms through to abstract nature, and attempting to visually enter a space, but in more of a metaphorical way.  While she enjoys creating in within the figurative realm, the artist admits she is still uncomfortable with the idea of purely abstract work and likes to think her forms are still "something people could relate to and associate with real life."

(Terra Septentrionalis)

 There came a point a few years after graduating where Mary felt her artistic process was a bit too quick and hurried. She decided to rework her style and slow her hand down through the utilization of french curve stencils, colored pencils, unforgiving clayboard and in using one tool/one idea, seeing how much variety could derive from it. Despite the structured nature of this process, the artist left herself open to whatever forms might emerge from this exercise.  A “meditative and obsessive” process as she put it. 

(Ghost Spiral 5)

Continuously learning, growing, and expanding on her skills, Mary has developed her own unique style and is constantly pushing herself to look at things a different way, literally challenging herself in some cases.  She will sometimes begin a piece with different parameters such as having forms only touch a single edge of the canvas, or two edges, no edges, utilizing only one color, and then allowing the painting to run away with itself and naturally come into being.  The artist's playful compositional experiments are evident in her later Ghost Spiral series which depicts spiraling tubular-like forms that almost look like clouds of smoke.  

At this point in Mary's career, she has moved away from structure and micromanaging her pieces and allows them to breathe, plays more with negative spaces and thinks in a more calculated way about color.  The artist likes to work on several paintings at once, and despite her undergraduate education imploring her to do otherwise, is able to walk away from a piece instead of toiling away at it until its "fixed".

Now a teacher herself at Northeastern, Mary is encouraging a future generation of artists to open their minds and push boundaries just as she had and continues to do.

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a painting workshop led by Mary through one of the Copley Society of Art's Circle events where I was interviewer turned fledgling abstract artist.  

(Flutter 1)

So, how ARE artists able to think in that way?   

Mary began her workshop with a quick abstraction lesson using the artist, Piet Mondrian as an example:

1. Horizontal Tree 1911

2. Flowering Apple Tree 1913

3. Composition in Brown and Gray 1913

4. Composition No. 6

5. Broadway Boogie Woogie 1942-43

You can see that Mondrian wasn’t always dabbling in the grid and colored block compositions he has come to be famous for. Rather, he began his career illustrating nature with evident links to the representational world and then slowly began to breakdown forms into colors and patterns heading towards abstraction. (For a comprehensive analysis of Mondrian’s evolution as an artist, go here.)

(Topography 7)

After this quick art history lesson we were asked to create a grid on a small 8"x8" square of clayboard which was where our "rules" ended.  From this point, we could make increase or decrease the spacing, work with or completely against the grid, and add flourishes of different mediums wherever we saw fit.  Over the course of two hours it was fascinating to see what creations emerged: linear progressions, explosions of whirling organic forms, and homages to the Masters of yesteryear.

This loosely structured exercise allowed me to let go of my artistic hang-ups, stunting desire to achieve "perfection" and dip my toes in the realm of abstract forms and color interactions in order to truly understand that a composition doesn't need to be a literal depiction of life in order to convey the same messages, meaning, and sentiment.

Abstraction is a process.

(The artist in her studio)

Mary Hughes' work is currently a part of the Copley Society of Art's White Lights exhibition until April 8th and will be on view at the Far & Wide:  2nd Annual Woodstock Regional from April 9th- May 8th should you find yourself in upstate New York.

(I'd like to thank Annie & Millie for being such gracious hosts during my studio visit) ♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Stacking

I just came across a review for Stacking, the latest XBox 360 game from Tim Schafer, the creator of Maniac Mansion, Psychonauts, and the Secret of Monkey Island.

It is a game about a young chimney sweep named Charlie Blackmore, and his quest to reunite his family after they have been forced into indentured servitude by an evil industrialist.  The characters are all gorgeously rendered nesting dolls with different abilities and can stack themselves within each other to acquire that particular character's skill.

Here is the IGN review to clarify:

I also like that there is a cheat function.  While I enjoy challenging games, I don't have the energy to lurk online forums looking for answers as to why some pixelated door in Level 7 won't open.

I try not to "get into things" after work (Sorry Sopranos. Glee. Breaking Bad.) because I already have enough on my plate, but once in awhile I let a few things slip through the cracks.  Like binge drinking, entire offerings of the Bravo network and possibly Stacking. ♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Imposter Syndrome

          How To Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Ever Told Me)

A friend sent this link to me a few days ago. It put some much needed pep in my step to carry me through to the weekend.

Read it. All of it. Hopefully it will make your Monday a bit more tolerable.

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Weekly Wrap-up for April 01, 2011

          Have you had to encounter that co-worker yet whos all

"Hey guess what?"

"what."

"I heard you're getting fired!"

"WHAT?!"

"....pfffffffffffftApril Fools!"

D;

Let's kick over the water cooler and wrap this week up.

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Nancy Diessner: Shelter in Place

When: On view now through April 30th, 2011

Opening Reception: Friday, April 1, 6-830 pm  

Where: Bromfield Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118

How: Official Website

What/Why: "This exhibition of photogravure prints on Japanese papers brings together images of what were once lost and abandoned dogs with portraits of the individuals who gave them shelter. The work explores the human-canine relationship with its complex and silent communication, through images that probe beyond the surface to the raw desperation and the compassionate connection in the face of the human and the animal.

Diessner volunteers with Save a Dog, a local humane society and rescue, and many of the subjects in this exhibition were drawn from that community."

--------------

Everything is Okay

When: Friday, April 1st, 2011  7:00pm -  10:00pm

Where: Voltage Coffee and Art Gallery 295 3rd Street, Kendall Square Cambridge, MA 02142

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Most people would agree that there is a lot of heaviness in the world. Whether due to our unlimited access to global news and images the plights of war, unemployment, boredom, natural disaster and heartbreaking tragedy have reached a tipping point as to make their presence felt more acutely.  If you stop and think about these issue too much – immobilization.  Too little - naivety.  Joshua’s reaction is to create, and in his work he explores the juxtaposition of continuing to make beauty when the bad is so tangible.  This raises the question - is it okay to take up a pencil and brush instead of arms? 

From no lack of awareness and sensitivity comes a narrative by Joshua of epic battles, identifiable characters and repetitious patterns.  Henry Darger escaped into a world of girl child warriors to battle the evil, Joshua uses hoodlum zombies and reminiscent unicorns in an unlikely dual between good and evil, usually ending in the gluttonous slurping of brains.  Why?  Why not. The last thing we should apologize for is the dealings of our imagination; it is one of the places we don’t have to edit and be rational, and Joshua manages the topics of heaviness and weight with humor and rainbows.  "

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Half Baked: Fluxus, Flotsam, & Fables

When: On view April 02-April 26th, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 6-9pm

Where: Atlantic Works, 80 Border Street, Top Floor, East Boston

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Absurdly elegant, or elegantly absurd. When you pair the work of Fluxus artist Samantha Marder with Neil Wyatt's rich and elegant abstractions, the result is fun and beautiful and something you would never expect. It?s crazy and wonderful and full of surprises."

----------------------------------------------

Fifth Year Exhibition 2011

(Bear, David Pappas)

When: On view now through April 30th, 2011

Where: SMFA, Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery, 230 The Fenway Boston MA  02115

How: Official Website

What/Why: "The "Fifth Year Exhibition 2011" presents work by three participants in this year's Fifth Year Certificate program—an intense, all-studio year of independent study. Each artist pursues individual investigations in a wide range of media and scope, from painting and photography to video and installation"

-----------------------

The SMFA is also showcasing a really interesting exhibition that plays out over 3 events in different venues. This weekend is the opening reception and I will share the other two events with you next wrap-up!

Allegorical Outfits, Fool's Play  (Event 1 of 3)

When: Open April 1st to 11th 2011

Opening Reception: Friday April 1st, 2011

Where: SMFA School of the Museum of Fine Arts Atrium, 230 the Fenway Boston, MA 02115

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Allegorical Outfits, Fool's Play" presents contemporary art and live performances created by SMFA Queer Students taking place at the SMFA and two new Boston galleries.

Works at the intersection of photography, video, performance, painting and sculpture cite references and influences from surrealist women painters, sculptural fashion, Leigh Bowery's expansive drag, Care Bears to ACT UP and Queer Nation’s theatrical protest tactics and graphics.

A range of imagery and material can be found in these lively and sophisticated works by young artists: architectural pillars covered with crocheted elements and colored Vaseline, a sculpture made from bland beige carpet topped by a fish, Gatorade packages refashioned out of lead, stylized colorful photos of boys with floral themes and a hand made wooden chair with plumbing.  An evening event at Yes.Oui.Si Gallery includes a marathon four-hour live kiss-in, a movement-based performance in matching outfits with two women, an interactive video performance in response to Vito Acconci; and much more."

---

The Work of Chet Jones

(Bog House Window)

When:On view April 01-24th, 2011

Opening Reception: April 01, 2011 6-9PM

Where: William Scott Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Proud to announce an exhibition of new works by Chet Jones from April 1 - 24, 2011 at our Boston location. Please join us for a reception with the artist on Friday, April 1 from 6 to 9 p.m.."

------

The Divine Comedy

(Cloud City, Tomas Saraceno)

When: On view now through May 17th, 2011

Where:  Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "The Divine Comedy is an exploration of the emerging domain of experimental spatial practice where the concerns of art, design, and activism are powerfully converging today. The exhibition traverses three critical realms—History, Mind, and Cosmos—in which aesthetics and the production of knowledge can be seen as inseparable practices that are reshaping our social and intellectual landscape and opening new opportunities for engaged action."

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Beyond The Visible: The Art of Saira Elizabeth Austin

When: On view now through May 1st, 2011

Where: Mount Ida College, 777 Dedham St. Newton, MA 02459

How: Official Website 

What/Why: "Saira Elizabeth Austin has produced a body of abstract work inspired by man-made landscapes, sacred and secular, many of them ancient.  Some of the work explores the layering of these ancient cultures - Neolithic, Celtic, shamanic and Christian, in countries along the western edge of Europe, in France, Ireland, the Orkney islands, Cornwall and the Outer Hebrides.  Another part of this work is made closer to her home in Gloucester, Massachusetts where, in her own gardens, she explores the activity above and below the earth, imagining the vision of insects that are able to see beyond the range of human vision.  Working on paper with ink, watercolor and gouache, Austin’s abstract meanderings seek to mark the traces of ancient cultures, of places remembered, and of extended vision.

Saira Elizabeth Austin received a MFA from Bard College and an ALB from Harvard University.  An artist for nearly 40 years and a professor at the former Chamberlayne College and at Mount Ida College for 31 years, Austin maintains a steady studio practice and exhibition schedule. Austin teaches color theory and two- and three-dimensional design in Art Foundation at Mount Ida’s School of Design."

----------------------

Departures / Arrivals

When: On view now through April 24th, 2011

Where: The Loading Dock Gallery, 122 Western Avenue Lowell, Massachusetts 01851

How: Official Website 

What/Why: "Departures/Arrivals, which opens at the Loading Dock Gallery on Wednesday March 30th, presents new work by long time friends Cornelia Jutta Forster and Maxine Farkas. Since 1998 Forster and Farkas have met weekly to share ideas and inspiration. The pair began discussing Departures/Arrivals over a year ago, each pushing the other to experiment and to pursue the unfamiliar. The exhibit offers the viewer insight into the paths taken when comfort levels are left behind."

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Karen Moss: Dissonant Worlds 

When: April 1-26th, 2011

Opening Reception: Friday, April 1 ·  7:00pm -  9:00pm

Where: Fourth Wall Project, 132 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Fourth Wall Project presents Dissonant Worlds, an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by acclaimed veteran artist Karen Moss that presents large scale works focused on unsettling images of a world gone awry. The exhibition encompasses a transition in Moss’ style from human-animal hybrids inspired by vintage coloring books to depictions of real people in naturalistic settings. These narrative works depict scenes of post-apocalyptic landscapes, global warming, urban decay, eating disorders, overconsumption and war. There will be an opportunity for participants to meet the artist by appointment at the gallery and share their stories about contemporary anxieties, which could become source material for future artworks.

Karen Moss’ earliest influences were stories and illustrations found in children’s books. She is attracted to narrative and social commentary and is inspired by news items relating to problems in society. She received a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. For over 25 years she taught drawing and painting in Massachusetts institutions including Wheelock College, Massachusetts College of Art, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Harvard University. Karen Moss’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is included in numerous public and private collections, such as the Graham Gund Collection, DeCordova Museum, Boston Public Library, Vassar College Art Gallery, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston."

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BOGUS: Famous Works by Unfamous People

When: On view through April 21st, 2011

Opening Reception:  April 01, 2011 7:00-10:00PM

Where: The Lap Gallery, 289 Moody Street, Waltham, MA

How: Official Website

What/Why: "Want a reason to go to Waltham? Here's one - check out the opening of "BOGUS: Famous Works by Unfamous People" at Lincoln Arts Project tomorrow night. Featuring work by Dan Wilbur, David Tolmie, Fish McGill '04 (SIM), John Slepian, Johnny Chew '12, Kristin Texeira '10 (Painting), Mike Dacey, Mitchel Ahern, Nick Ward, and Pat Falco '10 (Illustration & Art History)."

---------

Bumpkin Forward

(Photo by Jed Speare)

When: April 1st-10th, 2011

Opening Reception:  Saturday, April 2 6:00-9:00

Where: Mobius, 725 Harrison Ave, South End 02118

How: Official Website

What/Why: "An Exhibition of the Bumpkin Island Art Encampment's 2010 Projects & Artists works, traces, and recomposition.

The 2010 Bumpkin Island Art Encampment artists, curators and projectfellows invite you to visit our public presentation of last year'sprojects at Mobius. The Bumpkin book documenting all 4 years of theArt Encampment will be available to peruse and purchase. The latest Request For Proposals for the 2011 Art Encampment will also be distributed.

A performance by Sara June and Max Lord, and an artists talk by Cara Brostromwill take place at the opening reception on Saturday April 2,6:00-9:00pm. Grounded by artifacts, works, and documentation from the 2010 BumpkinIsland Art Encampment, this exhibition is a forum for artists tosynthesize their Bumpkin experience with their current practices.Artists present recontextualized work from Bumpkin, images and videoof their experience, as well as new work that builds upon their workfrom the encampment."

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Need Date Ideas?

More than half of the above listings have opening receptions this weekend. See also: wine/beer/impaired judgment.  Also, SoWa First Friday is tonight and its Free B of A museum weekend.

Wish Your Exhibit Was Featured in the Wrap Up?

Don't be shy. Email Me . I'm a one man show who can only do so much event lurking during the week. Fill me in! I love catching up with you all, and there is no event too big or too small.  If e-mailing is too intimate, just add me to your listserv, I'll figure it out.

Think your Friday can't get any better?

It can. ♥

[fluxboston-blog]

The Emperor's New Clothes

THE BELIEVER: How would you say your experience of gallery openings in New York differs from Iceland?

  RAGNAR KJARTANSSON: There is less booze in New York openings.

In openings in Iceland everybody gets fucking pissed. There's more liquor, more of a party atmosphere, because it's just a village. A good part about growing up in the art scene in Iceland is there's no ladder-moving-up in the art world and blah, blah, blah. You just do your stuff and people are like, "Oh, it's good." Or they don't care.

The healthy part about coming from Iceland is that you don't care so much about your career. What I'm worried about is making a decent art piece that I'm happy with. And, mostly, that other people are going to get something out of it. And it's totally a weird luxury to be in a good gallery in New York. It's like saying, "I'm in the CIA." You get a little bit of respect.

I always think somebody's bound to find out soon that it's all a big misunderstanding. Do you know what I mean? It's like "Emperor's New Clothes." I think that every artist feels that he's a bit of a fake. I saw an interview with Stanley Kubrick's wife and she said the great director was always like, "They're going to find out soon, they're going to find out soon." I was glad Stanley Kubrick felt like that. It's healthy to feel like that: They're going to find out soon it's a big misunderstanding.

(via 1000 reasons not to start making art)

[fluxboston-blog]

Advanced Style

Loved this short film from Advanced Style made for Nowness.com

Id like to think I can be a cute, fashionable, fun old woman in my 80s, but I'll most likely be covered in doghair and poly/acrylic blends watching QVC.

(Thank you for sharing this damadesign!) ♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Back Bay Broads. Early Women Artists in Boston.

            (Self Portrait, Ellen Day Hale)

Back in the late 19th century when shops were shoppes and life was in sepia, men appeared to have stronghold on the industrialization and development in Boston as they had their pick of employment, held government positions, and were usually the ones controlling the money. However, it was also during this time that women played increasingly significant public roles in literature, education, social work, medicine, and especially fine arts. They became expert artists in a variety of media. Many lived, worked, exhibited, and assembled in homes, studios, and societies scattered across Boston’s new Back Bay.

                (Cover art by Margaret Fitzhugh Browne)

Boston Women's Heritage Trail(BWHT), is a local resource that showcases walking tours of various neighborhoods around Boston(among other services) and highlights significant women's homes/events along the way.  BWHT has outlined an interesting 90 minute walk around Back Bay that points out prominent women artists and collectors of the late 19th/early 20th century.

                           (Song of the Spheres, Lilian Westcott Hale)

Did you know?

Copley Square was originally called Art Square and was renamed "Copley" in 1883 to honor the famous eighteenth-century portraitist.

The first area developed in the Back Bay was the Public Garden. Opened in 1837 as a privately owned botanical garden, it grew into a splendid public park featuring a lagoon, Swan Boats, and fine sculpture.

The statue of abolitionist senator Charles Sumner on the Boylston Street side of the Garden should have been the work of a woman sculptor, but it’s not. Anne Whitney (1821–1915) won a competition to create a statue in likeness of the senator, but the Boston Art Committee reneged after learning the artist was female, and selected Thomas Ball instead. Whitney installed her version in Harvard Square in 1902.

Wealthy art patron Isabella Stewart Gardner lived at 150–152 Beacon Street (5b) before her neo-Venetian palace, Fenway Court (today’s Gardner Museum).

The Commonwealth Avenue Mall, designed in 1865 was made to resemble the boulevards of Paris

                                  (Woman resting, Lilian Westcott Hale)

All true.

And if you want to learn more about early Women Artists in Boston, be sure to check out the rest of the article on BWHT's site. ♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Welcome to the Work Week

(After the Heist, Patrick Leger)

“A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.” 

              — Albert Camus ♥

[fluxboston-blog]

Weekly Wrap-Up for March 25th, 2011

           Happy Friday!

Life has been a mix of crazy and busy as of late.

cruzzy?  bayzee?

Never a dull moment.

Let's say goodbye to the week and hello to the wrap-up.

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CRAFT Boston

  (The Work of Alice Drew)

When: March 25th- 27th, 2011

Where: Seaport Hotel World Trade Center, 200 Seaport Blvd, Boston, MA 02210

How: Official Website 

Cost: $15

What/Why: "Craftboston Spring is New England's premiere exhibition and sale of contemporary craft. Craftboston showcases one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces in baskets, ceramics, decorative fiber, wearables, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper and wood. Craftboston Spring includes 200 artists and is located at the Seaport World Trade Center on Boston's historic waterfront.   Craftboston is produced by The Society of Arts and Crafts. Incorporated in 1897, SAC has been at the forefront of the American craft movement fostering the development, sales, recognition and education of craft for over 100 years."

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Sing Hanson: Sidetracks

When: On view now through-May 8th, 2011

Where: Albright Art Gallery 32 Main Street, downstairs, Concord, MA 01742

How: Official Website 

What/Why: "Albright Art is pleased to announce the opening of Sing Hanson's exhibit Sidetracks. Sing's work will be displayed March 8 through May 8, 2011. The public is welcome to visit with her at an artist reception at Albright Art gallery on Thursday, March 10th from 6 - 8pm. Wine will be provided. Concepts of re-purposing, reworking, and adaptive reuse have framed the photographs in this current Sidetracks exhibit. These images of decommissioned railroad cars rusting and peeling away on unused tracks become metaphors for the passage of time, the ephemeral nature of apparently concrete objects and the triumph of re-purposing them through the creative act. Sing is interested in iconic pieces and their ability to transmit stories and values across time."

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Spring Craft and Specialty Food Fair

When: March 26th 10-5, March 27th 2011 10-4

Where: Rockingham Park Racetrack- Indoor, 79 Rockingham Blvd Salem, NH 03079

How: Official Website 

Cost: $5

What/Why: "Over 150 of the regions finest Craftsmen and women will display and sell their American made crafts including Candles, Pottery, Tapestry, Fine Jewelry, Quilts, Photography, Metal Sculpture, Ceramics, Intarsia, Soap, Wall Hangings, Appliqués, Wind Chimes, Folk Toys, Soft Sculpture, Leather, Mail Boxes, Calligraphy, Pen & Ink Drawings, Fleece, Shaker Style Furniture, Knits, Poetry, Slate, Tole Painting, Pet Gifts, Felt Bags, Doll Clothes & Accessories, Fabric Home Décor, Silk and Dried Floral, Lampshade Covers, Stained Glass, Flags, Heat Packs, Quilted Jackets and Shawls, Fancy Dresses, Photos with the Easter Bunny and much more. Enjoy sampling such gourmet delights as Herbal Dips, Scones, Candies, Amish Breads and whoppie pies, Salsa's, Roasted Nuts, Barbeque Sauces and more."

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On Tour: Letterpress Gig Posters

(example of Yew Haw Industries work) 

When: On view now through April 8th, 2011

Where: Montserrat College of Art Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery, 22 Essex Street Beverly, MA 01915

How: Official Website 

What/Why: Beverly, MA, March 2011 - Capable of mass production and quick distribution, the gig poster is a staple of the print medium. As an established archetype in the current media environment, letterpress has begun to wrap itself around its own esteemed history; self-referencing its own “retro” or “vintage” aesthetic in font and design. Montserrat College of Art Gallery is pleased to exhibit On Tour, curated by Montserrat Faculty and print maker Sarah Smith featuring the prints of Hatch Show Print, Yee Haw Industries, Amos Paul Kennedy Jr and Hammer Press; an exhibition that explores the generations and evolution of the unique and timeless standard of the letterpress gig poster.

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 Cuts and Accretions

When: March 19th-27th, 2011

Where: fivesevendelle project space, 57 Delle Ave, Boston, MA 02120

How: Official Website 

What/Why: "A Collaboration with 57 Delle is a new, site-specific installation by Framingham, Mass.-based artist Kassie Teng on view at fivesevendelle project space from March 19 to March 27.  Teng will make sculptural drawings that grow out of cracks, peeling paint and other surface residues layered in the walls of the 1875 domestic residence turned art venue.  This project supports fivesevendelle’s mission to offer deserving artists exhibition opportunities outside traditional for-profit and institutional systems."

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One of a Kind-An Exhibition of Unique Artist’s Books

When: On view now through April 9th, 2011

Where: Pierre Menard Gallery, 10 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

How: Official Website 

What/Why: "For those of us for whom the codex represents the apex of human achievement and the vessel for all that is greatest in our history, the fact that the printed book is at best a dubious medium for art, if not an environment overtly hostile to it, has always been a disappointment. Although there have been some glorious marriages of image and text, the vast majority of so-called livres d’artiste are unhappy ones, even many of the most celebrated. They rarely manage to transcend the aporia created by the juxtaposition of two media fundamentally at odds with each other, the regularity and visual gravity of text and the irrepressible vitality and multifarious flow of art.

Yet the codex has a wholly other life, which, though it was supplanted as the primary medium for the conveyance of information by the advent of print, has retained the power and aura that we associate with the great illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages, in the unique artist’s book. Untrammeled by the dictates of type or the standards of mass production and use, the unique artist’s book remains an expressive and versatile art medium, which is animated by the unique cultural, historical, and inherent potency of the codex. Its capacity for visual narrative and the expression of time in general, the creation and release of visual tensions, its integration of movement and meditation, make it a medium distinctly different from any other, and the intimacy of the codex form determines a relationship to visual material that is incomparable. We rarely have the opportunity to dwell in the world of the unique artist’s book, as considerations of security render its purpose almost impotent in the context of the museum, and its very uniqueness insures that any individual example is going to have an almost hermetic history. It is therefore with great excitement that we announce an exhibition of unique artist’s books, curated by artist Heide Hatry, herself a former rare bookseller and maker of unique books."

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Margaret Swan: In Leaf / Laura Evans: White Noise

When: On view now through April 17th, 2011

Where: Boston Sculptors Gallery / 486 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118        

How: Official Website 

What/Why: "Laura Evans’ sculptures encourage the viewer to look inside and see how the work was constructed. Despite exposing her processes, Evans has created sculptures that are curiously self-contained, stationary and mysterious. Orifices that suggest mouths, ears, vents, funnels, gills and open tubes are the means by which the private interior space merges with the shared public space. Evans received a B.A. from Hampshire College and an M.F.A. from Boston University.

Margaret Swan’s new sculpture is a departure from her work in sheet metal, her principle medium for many years. Inspired by the structure and rhythms of natural forms, Swan creates layering planes of light and shadow in her new multi-part concrete sculptures. Working over polystyrene armatures, she sculpts the surfaces with a mixture of pigmented concrete and coal slag that suggests the texture of stone.

Swan is a founding member of Boston Sculptors. Her sculpture has been included in exhibitions throughout New England, including the Aldrich Museum, the DeCordova Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. Awarded two Massachusetts Artist Fellowships in Sculpture and other grants during her career, Swan has a commissioned site-specific piece on view at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston."

-------------------------------

Before I go.. 

When I write these wrap-ups, I pick up images I like as I go, and then compile them into a post. I think it's interesting there is this kind of random color cohesion happening with the images this week..warm hues(oranges/reds/yellows) coupled with white and black.

Don't you think?

I need to stop drinking on Thursdays. ♥  

[fluxboston-blog]

The Work of Ryan Leigh

   ‎"Ryan Leigh is interested in explanations of physical reality and man's need for an all-encompassing 'theory of everything'.

His works, frequently executed in lead pencil on graph paper, are intensely detailed, and predominantly question differing means of communication, for instance the 'documentary' drawing and how it has been used in scientific or religious contexts to express a given truth"

Learn more here.

Not here. ♥ 

[fluxboston-blog]

Web Finds for March 23, 2011

           (Nicola Samori)

Web Finds.  

We haven't done one of these in awhile.  Let's!

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Diego Gravinese

"Diego Gravinese was born in La Plata, Argentina in 1971. His work has been shown internationally over the past 15 years in New York, Paris, Madrid, Turin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, and Los Angeles. He worked with Ruth Benzacar and ZavaletaLab galleries in Buenos Aires and with DeChiara gallery in New York. He currently lives and works in Buenos Aires."

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TWOASTWONS

"PRETTY PICTURES AND ARTSY MUSINGS OF TWOASTWONS"

Boston gallery curator by day, blogger by night.  While the site is still fairly new, there have already been loads of great finds on it.  This girl has a good eye.  You should keep YOUR eye on her.

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The Work of Sea Hyun Lee

"The series Between Red is at first glance overwhelmingly simple. A series of landscape paintings is rendered in delicate washes of red. Large swaths of unmarked white meander between islands of crimson land. The blank spaces are harshly set against the carefully detailed fragments in red; nonetheless, they cohere into the flawless totality that is created by each painting."

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Richard Phillips

"Richard Phillips lives and works in New York. He is known for his large-scale glossy hyper-realistic paintings, recalling the pictorial style of magazines from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and reflecting traditions of popular image."

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IKEA E-Folder Desktop Organizer

"IKEA teamed up with ad agency Laboratory Ideas in Budapest to help people organize their virtual desktops in addition to the expected physical ones. Though not yet available in English, the E-Folder organizer tasks decorative IKEA storage bins with acting as desktop folders on the shelves of a popular bookcase."

----------------------------- 

Pablo Valbuena

"Site-specific installation. Matadero Madrid. ES. 2010. Video projection on architecture."

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The Work of Michel Haillard

"Haillard brings the design and the baroque ideas together with astonishing mastery of inspiration.

The elements that compose Haillard’s furniture have been collecting for years, the fruits of his exploration and research, his own “Tribal Pursuit” as he likes to call it. Haillard combines the naturalness of his raw materials, horns or teeth of various origins, leopard, crocodile and zebra skins having already delighted several generations of hunters, with an unfettered imagination and an obvious nostalgia for pomp and irony. His “pursuit” is both coherent creation, deliberately sustained, of the unexpected and the strange, whilst being tribal through its haughtily aristocratic character and at the same time keeping an unavowed and underlying conscious sense of excess.

Haillard is without doubt a great and amazing artist. By his highly personal way of transmuting the natural objects which he comes across, by the way he makes them perform new functions and, instead of bowing to the dictates of his raw materials, makes them obey the searching inspiration of his creative mind."

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The Work of Nicola Samori

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New works by Ruben Ireland

“Ruben Ireland is a graphic artist and illustrator based in London. Using a fusion of traditional techniques and digital processing, he creates thoughtful dreamlike images that carry emotional weight as well as a relevance to daily life. Tools include ink, acrylic, dirty water, foods, weathered paper as well as Photoshop and a wacom tablet”

---------------------

Stephen Mallon 

"NEXT STOP ATLANTIC: Can you imagine if you were on the last drop? You get on the train expecting to get out at Atlantic Station and end up hitting the Atlantic Ocean instead. Seeing these massive mechanisms being tossed into the ocean like a toy in the bathtub is a  ping in my heart. I have always been attached to these machines, their surreal beauty integrated into their functional engineering.  At first I was stunned, the moments of violent recycling, watching the water quickly adapt to its new underwater houses. After being pushed and stacked like a sardine in these subways cars over the past decade, it is nice to see the sardine actually getting one of these as its new steel condo.

These unbelievable photographs were captured over the past three years from Delaware to South Carolina. Since the 1600's man has artificially created reefs. The Metropolitan Transit Authority's recycling program has been involved for the past decade, retiring over 2500 subways cars to the ocean to help rebuild underwater reefs along the eastern seabed. These are my images, seconds before these mass transit vessels join history in building homes for life under the sea."

-----------------------------------------------

RIP, girl. ♥  

[fluxboston-blog]

Fragments of RGB

                         "Fragments of RGB is an interactive installation by onformative. The classic LED screen as a medium was simulated and disintegrated by the creation of a pixel-like LED optic with the ability to change and transform with the viewer’s movement and, hence, his perspective and point of view."

(via todayandtomorrow)

[fluxboston-blog]

Life Happened

                   "The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist.  The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life."

                                                                          -Henry Miller