reviews, artists, Authored Articles

"ART IN FIBER" for Artscope Magazine (May/June 2012)

"ART IN FIBER" for Artscope Magazine (May/June 2012)

"ART IN FIBER"

Marblehead Arts Association
8 Hooper Street
Marblehead, Massachusetts
May 5 - May 27, 2012

by Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article excerpt: 

Fans of fiber art have reason to head to Boston's North Shore this May. Celebrating their 90th anniversary this year, the Marblehead Arts Association presents "Art in Fiber" at their galleries in the restored King Hooper Mansion.

Curated by Sandra Golbert, Deborah Greel and Claudia Kaufman, the exhibit showcases the varied media recognized under the large umbrella of fiber art through an eclectic array of work by both regional and internationally recognized artists.

The ancient utilitarian form of the basket serves as muse for Brooklyn- based artist Charlotte Thorp, who transforms her vessels from steadfastly functional to purely sculptural using twined cords of waxed linen, Japanese paper and leather.

Brilliantly surfaced works in felt and silk by mathematician-cum-fiber-artist Larry Schulte are included, as are optically charged, geometric weavings by Newton, Mass.-based fiber artist Dora Hsuing.

Paper, with its mashed and intertwined fibrous DNA, holds court in book-based art by Carole P. Kunstadt. Her ongoing "Sacred Poem" series de- and re- constructs the 1844 and 1849 editions of the sacred text "Parish Psalmody." Kunstadt fringes, stitches, knots and even gilds papers from the antique paper tomes to make beautiful art objects layered with meaning.

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Image: Charlotte Thorp, "Red Well", hand-spun paper, waxed linen thread, leather cord, 10" x 10" x 6".

"CARIBIANA: SANDRA GOLBERT" for Artscope Magazine (May/June 2012)

"CARIBIANA: SANDRA GOLBERT" for Artscope Magazine (May/June 2012)

"CARIBIANA: TROPICAL SIGHTS AND COLORS BY SANDRA GOLBERT"

The Hess Gallery at Pine Manor College
400 Heath Street
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
March 28 - August 1, 2012

by Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article excerpt:

Invisible currents of air created by visitors entering the Hess Gallery are revealed as Sandra Golbert's "Sun Room" installation ripples a welcome. Suspended just beyond the entry gate, this curtain of hand-painted silk ribbons lights up the space with a gradient of sunset hues, confronting every entrant with subtle movement.

"Reef," a similarly constructed piece of suspended fabric elements, is the keystone of the fiber arts show "Caribiana: Tropical Sights and Colors by Sandra Golbert" at the Hess Gallery, located in Pine Manor College’s Annenberg Library. A cascade of hand-painted silk crepe de chine and organza slowly turning in the library’s atrium, "Reef" has only been on display once before, in a church. Its indigo-to-turquoise hues conjure at once the celestial and the nautical realms. Golbert envisioned each component as a floating painting, working with French cold-water dyes and salt to achieve brilliantly speckled, cooling washes of color.

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Image: Sandra Golbert, "Barnacles" (detail), hand-embroidered silk in barnacle-shaped cones, 18" x 6" x 2".

"THE PROVIDENCE ART CLUB" for Artscope Magazine (Mar/Apr 2012)

"THE PROVIDENCE ART CLUB" for Artscope Magazine (Mar/Apr 2012)

"THE PROVIDENCE ART CLUB"

Providence Art Club
11 Thomas Street
Providence, Rhode Island

by Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article excerpt: 

I’m on a guided tour of the Providence Art Club, and I’m lost. Guests “are always getting lost in here” quips Gallery Coordinator Kristin Grimm, as she shepherds me through the dark hallway of a period decorated, 18th century foyer leading to a soaring skylight. The back of the 1789 Seril Dodge House forms one wall of the corridor. I blink at the surreal perspective of the historic house’s wooden siding, now an interior wall, feeling quite like Alice through the looking glass. Welcome to The Club.

Boasting a proximity to breathtaking waterfront views ranging from Great Gatsby-esque to post-industrial, along with a critical mass of higher education institutions including the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence has long drawn both practitioners and lovers of the arts and letters to its steep-streeted bosom. It’s a fit home for the Providence Art Club, one of the oldest known art clubs in the country — second to New York’s Salmagundi, but the first to boast six women and an African American among its founding members.

Founded "for art culture" in 1880 by a group of 16 professional artists, amateurs and art collectors to stimulate the appreciation of art in their growing community, the Providence Art Club today has over 600 members, including practicing artists and the art lovers that keep the scene alive.

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Image: Providence Art Club, exterior view.

"THE EXPRESSIVE VOICE" for Artscope Magazine (Jan/Feb 2012)

"THE EXPRESSIVE VOICE" for Artscope Magazine (Jan/Feb 2012)

"THE EXPRESSIVE VOICE: SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION"

The Danforth Museum of Art
123 Union Avenue
Framingham, Massachusetts
November 20, 2011 - February 26, 2012

by Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article excerpt:

In the suburban margins of Boston, a modest museum sits patiently, its yellow brick façade betraying no hint of the legacy housed within its unique permanent collection. This is the Danforth Museum — and the secret is out.

Thanks to the persistence of museum director Katherine French, the Danforth is recognized as the go-to institution for the exhibition, housing and exploration of artworks related to Boston Expressionism, a sprawling movement itself thriving in the margins of 20th century American art history.

Preceding and informing the success of its better-known nemesis, Abstract Expressionism, the Boston school grew out of a deep respect for the work of Oskar Kokoschka (whose 1914 lithograph “Oskar Kokoschka” is currently on view), Max Beckmann and other Expressionist painters caught up in Europe’s perilous political landscape. Karl Zerbe, a German refugee painter who brought European Expressionism to Boston, hit a nerve with his protégées at The Museum School, many of them immigrants of the Jewish Baltic diaspora struggling to contextualize their secular identities in a modern America. 

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Image: Hyman Bloom, "Seascape II", 1974, oil on canvas, 55" x 72".

"INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH" for Artscope Magazine (July/Aug 2011)

"INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH" for Artscope Magazine (July/Aug 2011)

"INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH"

Fountain Street Fine Art
59 Fountain Street
Framingham, Massachusetts
June 17 - July 31, 2011

by Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article excerpt:

A newcomer this year, the member co-op Fountain Street Fine Art gallery is a welcoming space that retains the gritty charm of its 19th century manufacturing roots in Framingham’s Bancroft Building, home to the largest collective of working artists in MetroWest Boston. 

The first half of summer offers up "Industrial Strength," an open-call juried show showcasing 65 works selected by Howard Yezerski, owner of Boston’s Yezerski Gallery, from 232 entries. The theme asks us to reflect on the history of the gallery space and to investigate the detritus, elbow grease and politics of industry.

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Image: AJ Grignaffini, "The Fish", 2011, repurposed metal sculpture, approx. 8.5 x 11".

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